|
|
VEIL OF SECRECY - DEADTECH (V.O.S.) First release from this Yen Pox side project (edit) since the CD on Triumvirate some years back. 4 live tracks from 2001 full of cavernous dark ambient, lots of ominous passages, full of spacious echo and drifting, ultra dynamic textures. Like Yen Pox, has that great ability to suck you into a bottomless void, capturing and unleashing a stream of effects laden atmospheres in surround sound-styled glory. A fucking beaut. ~ Jason Mantis (Malignant Records)
Veil Of Secrecy is one of the most original and interesting dark ambient weavers operating at the moment. In 2001 the limited edition bonus CDr "All Is One" delivered some of his most amazing compositions, recorded live during a performance at the Deadtech in Chicago. Such great music definitely deserved a better and more refined presentation, and now it finally got it. "Deadtech" is a still limited CDr released inside a DVD-shaped box, and contains the full-length Chicago live performance, mastered from sound board recordings. Quality is superb, enhancing even more the evocative power of this monstrous, yet melodic mass of alien sound. Four tracks slowly evolve from the cosmic noise and darting asteroids roaring in the beginning, down to the deep space ecstasy of the last, uncanny minutes. Take some time and let yourself be sucked into the freezing black hole, the nova explosion, the comet swarm evoked by Veil Of Secrecy's music. If you're fed up with the crowd of Raison d'être wannabies, hurry up and get a copy of this dark marvel.
~ Filth Forge
If
any of you bothered to read my review of the MZ412 VS Folkstorm release, which
I suggest you all do, you’ll know that I made certain pertinent points about
‘live’ albums. Here’s another one for you to digest. What constitutes a
‘live’ recording? Going back many years Throbbing Gristle released
"Heathen Earth" which was a recording made in one take in a studio
with assorted guests to witness proceedings. Does this qualify as a ‘live’
recording? The reason I ask is that "Deadtech" is a ‘live’
recording from Chicago in 2001 but the sound quality and clarity make it
appear very much like a studio recording. Either the engineers are magicians
or "Deadtech" was recorded in the same way as "Heathen
Earth". Of course it doesn’t fucking matter one way or the other unless
‘obsession’ is your middle name. All we the record buying public want is
the music to be something we can enthuse over and lose ourselves into. V.O.S. - VEIL OF SECRECY (TRIUMVIRATE) Yen Pox is one of the most respected and best known dark ambient acts from America, all the more if you put an emphasis on the "dark" part of the genre. And if one half of this act had already delivered a solo CD, under the name of Bloodbox, Steve Hall, the other member, had still to offer something of his own. "Veil of Secrecy" is indeed Hall's first solo effort, released on Law's label Triumvirate. And from the very first moments of "An Angel's Last Breath", the listener understands where he is dwelling: dark echoes, reverberated distant beats and bass filled windy atmospheres: welcome to another incarnation of calm darkness put into sound. With its huge, encompassing tones and its very long tracks, this album builds up rather slowly a brooding and chilling setting, in which one is surrounded by a rather low and very solemn atmosphere, while smaller and creepy sounds bursts from time to time, as a sudden changes in a movie would do. And in fact, this "Veil of Secrecy" sounds very sound-trackish. Whatever you think of "The Blair Witch Project", the sound of this CD is more or less what you could have expected to hear if you had been living the story of this film. This music has no landmarks, no lights and no plans, made up only of massive tones. Not as drone-oriented as Bloodbox, this CD is thicker and fuller. "Long" and calm as Yen Pox can get, it however features on more or less all of the tracks some echoed percussions, not in a rhythmic, but rather in a disturbing way. The big influence here seems to be Lustmord's "Monstrous Soul", and V.O.S goes all the way to give you the creeps while filling your room to the core with basses, oscillations (for example on "Throne to the Dogs") and cold atmospheres. If the Bloodbox CD had received raving reviews when it was released, I personally think that this CD by V.O.S. is more addictive and, most of all, far better produced and recorded. Part of a scene that features other talents like Wilt or Monstrare, V.O.S. signs here a really good debut album. And even those of you who don't like to put bands into genres will have to agree: this is ambient and (very) dark. And, this one is a good one; I'm quite impressed with the catchiness, or let's say the efficiency of it all. ~ Recycle Your Ears
9/10 ~ Aversionline
rated 4 of a possible 5 Steven Hall and Michael J.V. Hensley have been working together as Yen Pox since the early 90s. Hensley has also worked alone as Blood Box on the side, and now Hall has splintered off and found a similar solo outlet with the creation of V.O.S. Many of the same traits that define Yen Pox's pitch black, haunting soundscapes have spilled over into this new project. Slow paced, grinding sheets of sound hover over dark vibrations, intoned with cold, metallic scraping that stews together in a reverberating, expansive landscape of ambient noise. The repetition is soothing and hypnotic, as mysterious masses of thick tonality envelope odd, distant noises that invoke a bleak, industrial landscape thriving with the slight hum of engines and the muffled throes of machinery. The only attempt at traditional melody can be heard on the final track, "Coronation of Jackals", with a thick, heavy synth loop slowly sawing into a bed of deeper drones. Seeing as how Yen Pox has released only two albums over the past six years, this new project from Hall is exactly what the good doctor prescribed to tide everyone over. ~ Ben Didier (Outburn) Again, the heavy noise-mongers at
Triumverate are creeping into subtler states of dark ambient soundscapes...
V.O.S. churns up five pleasantly dismal pools of midnight murk hidden
behind their Veil of Secrecy. ~ David J Opdyke (AmbiEntrance)
Steven Hall of Yen Pox is back with a project that picks up right where that long-lost monolith quit. Veil Of Secrecy is a complete full circle trek into dark-ambient industrial drift, drones and triumphant slave-drum touches. In the tradition of early Lustmord, a close kin to Asmorod, Lull and Amon, and of course, the best comparison is Yen Pox. Five very long tracks explore themes with exquisite precision of time, timing and rhythm. The drift is grey and murky, thick haze, flowing and swelling like the sides of some leviathan beast. Around the time the last track hits; "Coronation Of Jackals", we are center stage at some arcane moment in the deep, haunted woods. I played this record twice in a row even though I had a stack of other things I needed to review that day. Excellent! Highly recommended for those of you that liked my recent recommendations for Sator Absentia, Sleep Research Facility or Aarktika. ~ Vince Harrigan -Mainfold
V.O.S. (Veil of Secrecy) is the
solo project of one Steve Hall, who is most famously known as one-half
of the amazing dark ambient band Yen Pox. Michael Hensley, the other
half of Yen Pox, records his solo endeavors as Blood Box, a mixture of
suffocating atmospheres and sparse, cinematic drones mixed with somber
melodies. Veil Of Secrecy, on the other hand, had produced little
material since its incarnation, until now. The self-titled disc on the
Triumvirate label possess a dark ambient backdrop throughout much of the
music as we might expect from a Yen Pox member, very brooding and
austere. Thankfully, just as Michael Hensley sought a different
direction with his solo material, so did Steve Hall with V.O.S.; Steve
Hall weaves a multi-colored tapestry of sound into his music, using
hums, short noises, reverberations, and most surprisingly, guitar. The ~ Stephen Klusza - WORMGEAR
Founding half of Yen Pox, American dark ambient formation whose talent is recognised and respected, Steven Hall presents here his personal work with a project called Veil Of Secrecy (V.O.S.). This album is not something new because it is during 2001 that the American label Triumvirate, renowned for being the label of Law but also for its affection for the darkest aspects of ambient music, decided to release 'Veil Of Secrecy' as a CD. But who cares about being new or not when one holds in his hands a release of such great quality... 5 very long tracks that plunge the auditor into the most sombre ways of dark ambient and this from the first seconds of 'AN Angel's Last Breath', a first track that is a declination of dark ritual sounds... with the recurrent presence of a 'fog horn' that insistently announce the warning of an end... a track that, due to its length [10:54], takes its time to progressively immisces itself in the mind of the auditors...
Veil of Secrecy is a American dark ambient project. The man behind this name is Steven Hall, who’s also active in Yen Pox. V.O.S is his solo project. The recordings on this cd originate from 1995-2000. It concerns vife long tracks and the music is excellent dark ambient, with drones, industrial sounds, low pianosounds and spheres that invoke mental images you could actually see for real if you go wander into ancient woods this time of the year as the nightfall sets in. However, these images constantly have a unquiet underlying layer which is visualised by the metaphor of a cliff or a black hole in which everything disappears. In short: the constant presence of a existential threat, translated in sounds we simply call dark ambient music. The music could very well serve as a soundtrack for an alternative version of the Blair Witch project. The music is frightening and sounds like it wants to swallow you fully. This only can be matched by Veinke or Lustmord. ~TekNoir - GOTHTRONIC.COM
Written and recorded between 1995 and 2000, Steven Hall's Veil of Secrecy predates it, but it nonetheless calls to mind the spooky end credit ambience of The Blair Witch Project. Almost as morose and equally creepy, Veil of Secrecy is real deal cantankerousness with its hammer-like trance tones. A hypnotic and disturbed body of work, the five songs on Veil of Secrecy chug along with the pace and spirit of a Grand Inquisitioner, testing the listener's mettle and endurance, neither of which will come naturally. As if to extract heresy, Veil of Secrecy is wrenching and brutal with a purpose. An Angel's Last Breath clangs and echoes with hollow strikes that announce something ominous and foreboding. This dead, somber track seems in favor of conveying a quiet rage devoid of much of the external clatter found in the work of Hall's peers. Hall, at least in the opening moments of Veil of Secrecy, seems content to work on the nerves with a subversive macabre presence. As continued on Throne to the Dogs, he creates an overwrought, dark mood that is depraved in nature, unnerving in structure. Ruling Hand of Snakes has very little distinction from its predecessors, save for an increased tempo to Hall's maddened tones, now featuring the unwelcome addition of destabilized noises. What was merely gloomy before has become downright satanic, further exemplified by the demonic "ohm" mantra on Cold Embrace. Cold Embrace is lifted by a turbine engine squeal, rising in crescendo and becoming more menacing with each tortured minute. Hall's loop sample is a bit redundant here, robbing the track of its frigid intensity a bit, yet still capturing a trance quality completed on Coronation of Jackals. Far more concrete than the other four tracks, Jackals opts for quietude with an actual melody, still creating a wintry and aloof sensation that is nowhere near as evil. Veil of Secrecy is a tough ride down Doom Drive. Far more listenable than others of this genre, the punishing ambivalence of Steven Hall's work will nevertheless have one mysteriously turning headfirst into the darkest corner of the basement after a listen. If that's a compliment to Hall, then so be it. ~Ray Van Horn, Jr. - LEGENDS MAGAZINE
One of the fascinating things about „Dark Ambient“ is its timeless quality. Close your eyes and sit back and you’d never guess that these pieces are already between five and ten years old. On the other hand, this also implies that there is absolutely nothing modern about them. Quite on the contrary, “Veil of Secrecy” is a wonderfuly old-fashioned album, which uses the methods and sounds one has come to expect of the genre: There’s the shepherd’s foghorn, metallic stabs, hints at melodies and distant waves of crushing noise breaking at the shores of paranoia. Each element has all the time in the world to expand and reverberate in the mind of the listener and there’s no such thing as “development” here – like chinese paper-worlds inside a cage of glass, there is a lot to discover, but nothing ever changes. For a first impression, check out “Throne to the Dogs”, a nine-minute painting consisting of no more than a deep, nervous string pad, minimal piano rumblings, some atmospheric backdrops and the sound of a helicopter slowly approaching (and never arriving). Even though “Veil of Secrecy” will not change
your life straight away, it is sure to be one of the records you’ll want
to take from the shelf and listen to again for some years to come. Just
close your eyes, sit back and forget about time. ~ Mouvement Nouveau
Subsnow 02-02
~ Chris Zaldua - Brainwashed
Imagination is a powerful thing and should never be underestimated. Here I am listening to V.O.S and I keep seeing within my mind a horror movie being played out in front of me. The sort of film where 6 young graduates, 3 men & women, go to a wood cabin in the backwoods of no-where-ville during vacation and get offed by a mask wearing inbred Redneck in ever more incredulous ways. I even picture one or more of the women getting fully naked first before being topped but that's only because I'm a filthy old sod. 'Veil of Secrecy' is probably one of the most eerie and haunting recordings I‚ve ever heard in a long time. Beautifully rendered dark ambience, with just the right amount of echo and reverb, makes this a masterpiece which shouldn't be ignored. If you like your music to suffocate you in atmospherics then look no further. It took Stephen Hall 5 long years to record this and boy was it worth the wait. If ever a piece of music was worthy of film soundtrack status then this is it. Utterly fantastic and an
absolute joy to behold. I guess you could say I really liked this.
Veil Of Secrecy - "All Is One" This mini-CD is given away with the first 500 copies of Veil Of Secrecy's debut CD. It features one track which consists of the melting of four pieces performed live in Chicago. In today's industrial scene it has become quite difficult to come across quality products able to give any kind of emotion to the listener, and, when we are dealing with the ambient area, the amount of incompetents rises to the sky. Veil Of Secrecy, an American project coming from New Paris, left me astonished for their ability to communicate, the intensity and power of the sound, and, last but not least, the ability to pass from the massive melting pot of cosmic noise, darting comets and colliding asteroids of the first minutes to the estathic space chant of the last, leading the listener into a journey among distant stars, into silence and infinite void, reminding the Tangerine Dream myth of "Zeit" and "Alpha Centaury" and the Cosmic Couriers of the 70s'. What else to say, hurry up to buy the excellent debut CD in order not to miss this small jewel!
|
|
