Veil Of Delusions – Echoes Of Dawn
Self-released
Release Date 16/09/2016
Running Time 46:14
Review by Rick Tilley
7/10
Veil Of Delusions are a young, five piece Dutch band, formed in 2015, who describe themselves broadly as Melodic Metal but thanks to many influences and styles emerging in their music you can add Symphonic and Death Metal as well. Their UK agent Matt Hopper sent me debut album ‘Echoes Of Dawn’ before Christmas but, due to my workload, this review is arriving a bit later than planned so I apologise to him and the band for the delay.
What is immediately apparent is that Veil Of Delusions are another female fronted band, although, thanks to guitarist Martin Vos, they incorporate some pretty good grunted male vocals on a regular basis as well, similar to another band I reviewed recently ‘Beyond Forgiveness’. What’s different here is that female vocalist Zoë Tilly (almost my namesake) doesn’t go down the operatic route, choosing to use her natural voice, which does make a pleasant change but, yes I’m going to get my ‘but’ out of the way early for a change, whilst Zoe does have a good voice it’s her contribution to ‘Echoes Of Dawn’ that lets it down slightly for me! Now I have seen written that she didn’t use any ‘tricks’ in the studio on her voice, which means what you hear is what she sounds like live, and if that is the case then I have to compliment her immensely. Unfortunately her delivery on some of the songs does seem a little underwhelming, almost like she is just going through the motions and some of her notes are, very slightly sharp or flat! While the rest of the band are hammering away, producing pretty catchy and lively tunes some of her vocal lines seem rushed, unoriginal and don’t really fit the overall composition and because of this many of the songs sound similar! I feel like I want to tell her to go back and try again, because it’s quite clear that Zoe has the talent to produce something excellent. I don’t want to sound like I’m being overly critical though because ‘Veil Of Delusions’ have still released a decent debut and considering this is self-produced have made it sound good within the limitations of their budget.
Intro piece ‘Echoes Of Dawn’, that is as bombastic as it sounds and which leads seamlessly into first track proper ‘War Begins’ sets the scene nicely for an album dealing with myths and battles. Guitar work, from Martin Vos and Xander ten Boden is good, the riffs are chunky and more than solid although solos are lacking, bassist Jeffrey Wennekes plugs away nicely, but it’s not always easy to pick him out and drummer Rob Reijs does his job very well indeed with some great double bass work! Put that together with the aforementioned growls of Vos, which aren’t overused but add plenty of bite and authenticity to the lyrical themes of the tracks, then Veil Of Delusions have come up with an interesting sound that bears repeated listening. In fact tracks such as ‘Together For Glory’ (which is arguably the best song on offer here), ‘The Chase’ and, the slightly more up-tempo, final track ‘They Wonder’ do start to bury themselves inside your head the more you listen!
It might be that there is an overt feeling of impending doom and sadness to Veil Of Delusions music that makes me feel like I do, especially when it comes to Zoe’s vocal delivery, or perhaps it is as something as simple as they just need more time to gel together as a band but I think that album number two is going to take them and the listener to the next level. They quite obviously have the talent to produce a fantastic album but just need to concentrate on ‘the hook’ and perhaps throwing a couple of faster songs in to break things up as well! I’m certainly going to give them full marks for the cover art though which is excellent! Definitely a band to watch out for over the next couple of years!
TRACKLISTING:
1. Echoes Of Dawn
2. War Begins
3. Together For Glory
4. Black Wings
5. The Chase
6. Desperation
7. Across The Sky
8. Last Generation
9. Shadow Of Myself
10. Fields Of Dragons
11. They Wonder
LINE-UP:
Zoë Tilly – Lead Vocals
Xander ten Boden – Guitars
Simon Onbelet – Guitars
Rob Reijs – Drums
LINKS:
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Reproduced here with kind permission from Metal Gods TV