Veil of Sound Interviews

You all know that we here at have a heart for more than one genre, so we have had Post-Metal and Drone Metal in this marathon and what else could be next than an interview with Hardcore-Metalcore workaholic Will Putney? The guy has been an awesome person to talk to as he was very open and had a lot to say about END, their new record The Sin of Human Frailty, (upcoming) tours, Better Lovers, the Tri-State-Area scene and much much more! Don’t be surprised if you come across a guy who’s well-versed in his music knowledge (across many genres) and who is also very clear about what he can do and what not. So enjoy the interview and make sure to check back tomorrow to find the next interview!

A band whose sound is undefinable, somewhere between Post-Punk, Blues, Drone and Ambient. A band which loves collaboration records, and has already released records together with A Storm of Light, Year of no Light or Fear Falls Burning. A band that lives for their songs and soundscapes - all of that is Nadja, the Berlin-based duo of Canadian expats Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff who release their music on a more-than-one-record-a-year basis and who recently released a new record in collaboration with Fawn Limbs (here is Martin’s review Martin’s review of Vestigial Spectra! Reasons enough for us to talk with Aidan - so enjoy our second interview in this year’s marathon!

Prolific and proficient! That’s surely something one can say about Robin Staps, his band The Ocean and his label Pelagic Records. We have not only reviewed a lot of records out via Pelagic Records (for example the latest releases by Saver, Arabrot, Mono, Jaye Jayle or JeGong), no Simon has also reviewed the last The Ocean record Holocene (you can check out his review here). But one thing that we must also know about Robin is that he is a man with a lot of interests and as it is always interesting to be interested we were really happy to interview him and kickstart our Xmas-to-New Year-interview marathon!

Yes, we are back with our annual interview marathon here on the VeilofSound - and of course you will get one interview over the next couple of days ending with a bang on January 1! But not only the end should be a bang but basically each and every interview and thus we are happy to give you this first interview with Robin from the Ocean who also runs Pelagic Records. Robin and us talked about ten records that shaped his musical taste and journey and he has come up with many interesting choices, some obvious, some surprising, but all making sense! Afterwards we talk a lot about the Ocean, the band’s development, the upcoming record (yes, UPCOMING) and the way that the band has also added to Robin travelling the world and much, much more. Enjoy the interview and make sure to check back daily to get the latest interview. But for now - we are happy to kickstart this year’s marathon with Robin Staps!

Over the last couple of years, we have witnessed many great new Doom bands. But rarely has one hit as hard as Belgian-based BRIQUEVILLE which has by now released several records through Pelagic Records. They might be the slowest, doomiest band on the roster, but they’re surely one of the most intriguing, densest and simultaneously most refined, most intricate bands in all of Europe. As we are always interested in presenting you something different and unique we are more than happy to give you a premiere - this is the first interview the band has ever done that’s not written! However, we of course kept the anonymity of the band member we spoke to. We touched on the new record, the development of their sound and who is under the hoods, there’s one answer that’ll surprise you, for sure! Enjoy!

A few weeks ago we had an interview with Billy Gould and in that one we mentioned this awesome band called Sleepbomb whose latest record is out via Billy’s Koolarrow Records in collaboration with our Belgian besties in Consouling Sounds. The record is really amazing and you should all listen to The Cabinet of Dr. Galigari and therefore we are really happy to have this interview with their bassist and synth player Tim who explained their approach to songwriting and their love for movies and much more!

One should not mistake the folks in Sleepbomb for artsy-fartsy movie geeks who dig only the French or Polish avantgarde or the Eastern European classics or the latest Korean cuts - they also love to do scores for pretty popular movies like Conan or for one of the most famous German movies of all times, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The latter is their last release and one must admit that they have a really great way of scoring a 100 years old movie but do not sound in any way old-fashioned or anything. Brilliant! Unforgettable! Splendid!

You can order your copy of the album from Koolarrow Records and from Consouling Sounds - but now let’s find out what Tim has to say!

When people from different, well-known bands form a new project, we often call them supergroups. Most of the time, these bands have only little to say, because it can be quite hard to arrive at similar ideas. With False Fed this is surely not a topic, because these four guys know what they are doing, how to do it and - most important - what they want to say. The Covid-born project consists of four people who, at least when we talked back in October, had never all been in the same room! Nevertheless, their debut record Let Them Eat Fake is biting and scratching and full of songs and stories very close to the band members’ hearts! Enjoy our interview with all of them and do not forget to check out their record at the bottom of this page!

Discharge. Amebix. Ministry. Soulfly. The list could be continued and we’d be not going but sliding down a rabbit-hole of unperceivable depths. If you wanna do that, you might consider taking a week of unpaid holidays. The band itself didn’t have to take a holiday to record their songs because it was conceived during the Pandemic, even though they never met in one room or recording studio - thanks to the interview for once because without it, this record would have been much more complicated to get done! We talked with the guys about what “urgency” might imply, very deeply about some of the songs, whether they want to take this record on the road and much more. Enjoy!

Sally Gates should not be a new name to all you VoS-ficionados, because we already spoke with her last year about the last album of her project Titan to Tachyons (we also reviewed Vonals). Sally moved to New York City a few years ago from her home New Zealand, and man, she has been a highly productive and respected part of the New York City Avantgarde scene working with many highly skilled well-regarded musicians around John Zorn and his Tzadik Records label. Now she’s releasing another record that might blow your mind alongside Trevor Dunn and Greg Foxx. So we had to sit down and talk with Sally again, and here you can enjoy our conversation!

When it comes to Free Jazz colliding and falling in love with heavy Rock sounds we quickly talk about Fusion, which is a label to make to make you shiver and quiver as (to me at least) it always implied a somewhat deranged and never-ending form of Grateful Dead-AOR-rock. But for several decades now, Fusion Rock is leaning more towards the harder side of things and shows a lot of crunch, heavy riffs and really intriguing rhythmic work. Sally Gates is one of the prime examples for that as she does not only know technique but also power and thus her “songs” are always mesmerizingly brewing both concoctions into one addictive poison! Her new collab record with Trevor and Greg shows that once more. We sat down with her to talk about Deliriant Modifier, its conception and birth, how she experiences life in the Big Apple and much, much more! Enjoy!

Scream is one of these iconic bands that we all heard about when we were young, apart from our walking encyclopedia Knut, who probably witnessed many of the DC Hardcore bands back in his 20s and 30s, but for the regular people among us the early DC years and the bands that came from that area and which were on Dischord or later on Jade Tree are legendary. Minor Threat, State of Alert, Scream - the latter even released the first full-length ever on Dischord. Now they’re back! With a new full-length! With collaborations galore and with great songs! And … with enough time on Pete Stahl’s hands to sit down and talk with us about many, many things! Enjoy another interview with a “living legend”!

The latter is a term that Pete doesn’t like and he explains why in this interview, but we also talk about the variability of songs, moods and genres on DC Special. He also explains why the record is neither only a reflection of our times nor only a trip down nostalgia lane. He explains his love for Dead Kennedys and even why he - a DC guy - now likes the Dodgers and which kind of music he likes to listen to when going on a hike. Enjoy these more than 50 minutes with a man who has played with the Sunn O))) guys, with most of the Desert Sessions folks and even with someone Pete more or less discovered, a guy called Dave Grohl - might have heard about him, guy might make it big one day.

Pyrkagion is one of these bands which at the moment are still a bit of an underground band, which is surprising as its members have some pretty famous “main bands” - think of Hissing and Bell Witch! But the most important reason why they are not gonna remain such an underground thing for long is their music: Black Metal in a kind of traditional sense without trying to emulate Trve Scandinavian Black Metal. And this music (you can check out our review here) is so much that we sought the opportunity to talk to Dylan again, who is one wonderful interview partner and if you listened to our interview (with Bell Witch) you will know what you are up for now. We sat down, talked about the record, its background and how Dylan had to learn a new instrument and also which book he prefers Dune or The Lord of The Rings. Enjoy!

There are records that are personal because we “make” them personal, by listening to the songs and the story and we associate a lot of our individual history and experience with it until the two things - record and experience - blend into one thing. To me, Great Falls released such a record like this a few weeks ago. Our man Knut wrote a great review on it (here you can read it) and he was a struck by the record as I was. Both of us thought it would be grand to get an interview with one of the guys and we were more than lucky, all three sat down with us!

Great Falls has been a very productive band other the years but their body of work is not only of a high quantity level, but also high on quality which is of course even more important. We talk with the guys about the new record, its story, why Damian is such a workaholic when it comes to being an arts and craft kind of guy. We also learned that one of the legendary short stories of Ernest Hemingway is just that - a legend. And we talk a lot about Hardcore, Noise, and which of the guys broke his arm on stage! Enjoy!

Some of our interviews are audio only for a good reason and today’s is such an occasion. 夢遊病者 (or “Sleepwalker”) are one of these enigmatic bands that see their members as mere vessels for songs and structures that are already there but only need to be turned into sound. The musicians behind it thus become somewhat obsolete and therefore irrelevant. Nevertheless we are happy to talk with one of them - and this not in a written form as we did roughly two years ago but as a podcast interview!

However, one thing must be clear from the start - we did not do this interview for obscurity’s sake or for the novelty, we wanted to do it because the band is one of the most intriguing ones anywhere at the moment. Their mix of sometimes brutal Blackened Death Avantgarde and a highly eclectoc number of other genres is a bespoke proof of their skills and their knowledge. The musicians behind the veil gathered a lot of intricate details about nearly every genre known to man, maybe apart from such aural atrocities and abominations as German Schlager or Polish Disco Polo. Throughout the course of our interview it becomes more and more obvious that this band is a unique occurence of humility and talent. And let’s be frank, when the music is so overwhelming, who finds time to occupy oneself with the musicians’ CVs? Enjoy the interview with the nameless and with a lot of deep talk and nerdism!

Very often we hear those silly jokes about the bass player who has an idea for a song and is then thrown out by his bandmates. But in a band like The Hirsch Effekt that surely is not the case as all three band members have their hand in the songwriting process and that makes for this awesome concoction that one hears on their records. Just recently they released their latest one called Urian. Reason enough to sit down for a talk!

Ilja J. Lappin is The Hirsch Effekt’s bassist and a profoundly skilled one on top who has a lot of knowledge about his instrument and how to use it as differently and with as many different purposes as one can imagine. He has turned his instrument into his profession and has worked with other acts as well as producing his own hot sauce. We talked with Ilja about the new record, its place in the band’s ouevre, the pandemic and its influence onto the band, how he got to produce his sauce and much much more. Enjoy!

SubRosa is dead. Whether we like it or not. Yet their legacy continues as two really good projects have risen from their ashes - one is The Otolith, which we featured heavily on VoS last year and now we have The Keening, which is the new project by Rebecca Vernon. Her new record is coming up next week Friday and therefore we sat down with her and chatted about the new record called Little Bird, about Stevie Nicks and about much more. Enjoy!

Rebecca Vernon has a very personal relationship to her music, one that made her move from Utah to Portland in order to be closer to the personell that was to record the new album (and an upcoming one as well!) with her. She is a thoughtful and templative but fortunately not a silent person. That also reflects in her love for everything Gothic, for the macabre and the morose. We get to know wich is her favorite instrument, as well as how the songs on her album came to live. Enjoy our talk with Rebecca Vernon!

Grails have just released a new record and it is more than awesome, as you can already see by our review. The band has always been hard to grasp, but one thing never seems to change and that’s the high quality of their output. We spoke with Emil Amos, one of the two band leaders, about Anches en Maat (check out our review here) and much more especially about the love for movie sounds. Enjoy!

Can one understand modern music without the classics and the stuff that came before you? Isn’t that one of those huge questions and one that we spoke about with Emil, who also is a part of OM (don’t worry, we also spoke about that band with him!). We went very deep and even have found some political notions in the new record, spoke about some of the greatest ever to play and of course also a lot about the new record, which was recorded in a way they last have done more than ten years ago. And of course, we also spoke about “intimate movies” ;-)

Denovali Records has always been a label for lovers of sound - and that has never restricted itself to one genre alone. That’s why one could find Drone Metal alongside experimental music alongside an act like Hidden Orchestra, which is going to release a new album next Friday, September 22. And as our head honcho is a huge fan he was very happy to sit down with HO’s mastermind Joe Acheson for a long, detailed interview.

Hidden Orchestra has always been about combining sounds from the natural realms and the articial - Joe has always incorporated field recordings into his music and has thus drawn from the “hidden orchestra” that surrounds us. He clearly spoke about how long it sometimes takes him to finish a song and why we should never wish for a track that he considers perfect. We talked with him about he way he composes music, with which British artist he would love to collaborate and how the work on a computer game soundtrack has profoundly changed his view on music and how to get his music to his audience. Enjoy the interview!

Black Metal itself is a highly paradox genre right? It’s always been connected to both - furor and melancholy. Musically, Atmospheric Black Metal represents that probably best, and one upcoming Atmospheric Black Metal band from the Northeastern USA (aka New England) that does that brilliantly is Eave. As we were proud to host a video premiere for them some weeks back, we are even happier that we got a chance to talk to Brian and hear some of his thoughts.

Brian is a pretty reflective guy and so his answers come out well-versed and clear cut, which is always nice for an interviewer who was a bit sleepy at the time of recording. We talked a lot about the record (out on Bindrune Recordings), the video we were able to host, the dichotomy within modern Black Metal and to what extent the band’s surroundings in New England influenced their sound and songs. Enjoy the interview and make sure to check out their album!

Transit. Transition. Transformation. All words that share more than just the starting syllable. All also indicate a progression from one “spot” to another. Rylan Gleave has gone through such a progression which we already spoke about in our review of his debut album In Chemical Transit which took us by surprise because it plays on and with audio from three very different periods of time in Rylan’s life. Furthermore it is a literally mesmerizing record as it combines Avantgarde soundscapes with real Classical vocal lines and songs. More than enough reasons to sit down and talk to Rylan.

Rylan Gleave might be known to many of you as the live voice of Scottish Black Metal-Avantgardists Ashenspire and yet this record has only very few connections to the band’s sound apart from him. His work might be better compared to Lingua Ignota or Diamanda Galas - I dare not name any Classical singer for sheer lack of good modern singers for such arias. The three different recordings of Mozart’s “Voi che sapete cosa é amor” from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro show Rylan’s voice at three different points of his transit. When we were talking to him we found out a lot about that transition and the psychological effects connected to it, but of course we also touch on many, many other topics so you can be sure that this is one of the most interesting interviews we have done up to now. Enjoy!

Having common friends are sometimes a really great thing when they introduce you to great artists who do not get enough attention which is about to change right now. The common friend who introduced me to Loather is Ralph from Ultha who also invited the guys from Vienna to his Unholy Passion fest in 2022. Now the guys have a new record out via Vendetta Records called Eis and I must say it is a really good Atmospheric Black Metal record with loads of spherical moments and still a lot of wonderfully dark bits. Reason enough to sit down with two of the guys for an interview.

We talked with drummer Hannes and guitar player David about the record, the great artwork, in which way the record was conceived and also of course, about their hometown Vienna and its weakness for everything morbid and somewhat Gothic. A highly entertaining conversation with lots of information about everything “icy”! Enjoy the interview!

Khanate and their new record were one of the biggest surprises in 2023, simply dropping their fifth full-length without any official hints, promotion or anything on May 19. Everyone’s feed was dominated by the news and everyone automatically went ahead to listen to it. The record has now had time to settle in and people were able to dive into To Be Cruel and as we are sure that there are still things that need clarification and explanation! Hence we were happy to get together with drummer Tim Wyskida to talk about the record and loads of things related to it!

Khanate is a supergroup consisting of band members with myriads of merits in their respective biography and a long history of releasing great stuff on famous labels. To Be Cruel is now released via Sacred Bones and fits perfectly into their body of work even though it might be a bit more “classical” in a specific way, as the way the band works is surely not by jamming all together but putting layer upon layer. The record is mesmerizing and haunting at the same time and always awe-inducing. We talked with drummer demon Tim Wyskida about all of that and much more. Enjoy the interview!

Shirt of the day: Mogwai

Mizmor has released his fourth full-length called Prosaic and has taken a new approach trying to not let a new record become an obsession, not trying to go for a full-fledged overarching theme. Nevertheless, this record is simply great, magnificent, superb, whichever positive adjective you wanna give it. In order to find out more about the process, the record and its place within his oeuvre, we talked with ALN. We’re very happy to give you this interview and we hope it makes your listening even more interesting and enjoyable (YES!)!

“Suffer less, have more fun” is one of the key lines in this interview with Mizmor, because he has found a very good point within himself, which allows him to let go of songs and structures. We talk a lot about ALN’s present and in which way it is reflected in the music; we also talk about the record’s title and how it also deals into the tracks. The daily life has a much more prominent position in ALN’s life and thus in Mizmor’s music. A highly introspective, valuable interview if you ask our head honcho, we give you our hour with ALN!

Shirts of the day: Tolkien and Mastodon

If you want to support Veil of Sound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Stephen Brodsky should be a household name in our realms because he’s been in famous bands for close to 30 years - Cave-In, Converge (YES! for a very short time), Droneflower, Old Man Gloom and Mutoid Man to drop a few. His voice and his guitar playing has flavored many of our most beloved records. The last band, Mutoid Man, has released a new record called Mutants a few weeks ago. You can check out our review here, but for us here at VoS that’s not enough, so we talked to Stephen about the new songs, the influences on Mutoid Man and much more.

Mutants is the band’s third full-length (not counting a few shorter releases, including 2014’s Helium Head) but comes after a few years’ silence. We find out what led to this short break, why Stephen loves Prince, which Van Halen album he prefers and why. We talk comics and Indiana Jones and to what extent Mutoid Man is a “fun band”. Enjoy the interview!

Shirts of the day: Prince and Mastodon

If you want to support Veil of Sound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Inevitably Dark might be seen as a return to Black Metal made by Xasthur for some old school fans. However, one might be asking the questions whether Xasthur ever really was “only” Black Metal or if the project has not really been about much more than only BM? When talking to Scott one gets the impression that this record is - for the time being - a momentarily return only because he has already been off to completely different shores.

The new multitude of melodies dispatched by Xasthur might at first spin not fall onto many welcoming ears because accessibility is surely not the record’s stronghold. However, if you give the tracks time, if you spin them repeatedly, you will notice that some of the songs are finding their way into your ears and will stick there, because of the interesting uses of the guitar he lays out on these tracks and also because there are some carefully laid out disruptions within them. Enjoy the interview!

If you want to support VeilofSound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Shirt of the day: Ultha

No Wilderness Deep Enough was surely a different record for Steve von Till - as he also points out in this interview. Wait - interview with Von Till? Yes! We were very fortunate to talk to the man himself, a mere 14 hours before he left for Europe where he will be touring for several weeks starting on Thursday, July 27, in Krakow.

When listening to the record one surely noticed right away how different this record was from earlier SvT records such as As The Crow Flies or A Grave is a Grim Horse - for it basically didn’t feature any track with a centerstage guitar line. Even more, the record wasn’t conceived on the guitar. No the tracks came into being in a very important surrounding for von Till and their core was done in a very different way. Want to know more? More about that and what we can expect on the upcoming tour? About his opinion of Mark Lanegan and David Eugene Edwards? Ólafur Arnalds and Jóhann Jóhannsson? Then check out this interview!

There are bands who you can't be angry with even though they might overthrow any plans you might have made - Bell Witch is one of them and when thinking back on Roadburn Friday and the massively packed main stage at the 013 - it is clear that many people simply love these guys for what they do as that is massive and miraculous, powerful and poetic. Whenever Jesse and Dylan release a new record, the scene is listening and justifiedly so, thus we needed to get an interview with the guys! Enjoy! "Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate" (out on @profoundlorerecords ) might have come out of the blue when they announced it three days ahead of that RB performance and yet, it's not only the level of surprise which is exciting about these 85 minutes, but also the music itself. It is a new chapter in the band's history as it opens a trilogy of records and also as there are some small, yet really cool new features to the epic version of Doom that one should not overlook. Therefore we are happy to talk on a very, very philosophical level about "the occult", the new record, the experience at Roadburn this year, Jesse's new kit and much much more. Enjoy!

Boris - a name like thunder. Uniform - lightning strikes. Boris & Uniform together = a quite explosive mixture, right? Listening to their collaboration Bright New Disease is not necessarily lightning in a bottle or a molotov cocktail but rather a high-profile combining of forces which results in a record that never lets you down and exceeds expectations. One can hear the Japanese masters and also the elements by our beloved New Yorkers potioners. Having a chance to get to talk with Uniform about the record and a lot of others things? Yes, no question! Enjoy our interview!

Our talk with Ben and the Mikes from Uniform was a deep dive into how to write and record a collaborative record (not a record with two bands doing different sides of a vinyl record) if both bands are on two different continents with a lot of miles in between and how that impacted the whole process. Additionally, we spoke about the pandemic and the way it influenced the record directly or indirectly, which other artist to collaborate with, how awesome some ticket selling companies are and much much more.

Whenever people talk about the early 90s and music, it will not take a long time before the label Sub Pop has to be dropped it seems because it back then was the label to be on as a band and the label to follow as a fan. They had Nirvana and loads of other bands that were changing what was alternative music back then. Sub Pop also had a band from New York under record that was called Codeine which kind of stood out from the rest as their sound was less aggressive, but not laid back. It was less screaming yet not calm whispers. When we heard that the band would be re-releasing some of their stuff we knew we had to get them for an interview! And here we are now…

Stephen Immerwahr is a wonderful interview partner as he takes his time, reflects his answers and doesn’t hold back anything. Those are qualities that are a great starting point for any interview. Furthermore, he also reflects his band, their heydays but also where they are now. He also explains why some of their records were out of print for such a long time and why he can understand why so many people consider his band one of the earlierst slowcore bands. Enjoy our interview and drop us a comment how you liked it!

If you want to support VeilofSound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Shirts of the day: Iskra, Convulsif

Love’s Holiday is the latest record by Oxbow, one of the seminal bands of the last 40 years. Admittedly, they’re quite a bands’ band in the sense that many musicians seem to tumble over each other praising the San Francisco outfit for their no-compromises approach to music and oftentimes simultaneously genre-defying and genre-defining records, think of King of the Jews or The Thin Black Duke! Having been given the chance to talk with the band about the upcoming album was not to be denied, especially since we got all band members together!

No-nonsense-no-bullshit-noise-rock, that’s what most people think when they hear the name Oxbow. One thing the band never understood is, why not many people recognized many of their songs to be about life’s longest-running theme: love. They have now recorded a whole caleidoscope of love songs, looking at the ultimate motif from different angels and angles. We also spoke about their favorite love songs, the videos they are making for every song on the record and the way that they are looking forward to getting people’s reactions to the album, which might also lead to the audience reflecting on their expectations to a band who never cared too much about them anyway. But also of course about much much more.

Shirts of the day: Maud the Moth, Oxbow, Serao Academy

Wearer Of Numerous Forms is maybe the longest record in our little scene this year with more than 130 minutes in just three songs. Eremit have shown their songwriting skills and how far the songs can take them. Wait - who is directed who now? The band writing the songs or the songs directing the band? Simple answer - the story.

For several weeks, we have been spreading the word about the mesmerizing Blackened Noise Sludge scene and flood of releases that this summer is witnessing all over the place, be it the USA, the UK or Germany. Eremit from Germany’s Osnabrueck take the crown amongst these for their combination of ultra-long tracks and storytelling. Because nothing in the realm of Eremit is done with a connection to their ten-chapter-story divided into three cycles and one epilogue following the life of an hermit searching for his true home…. you see? Epic! Fantasy! Lord of the Rings-like! True vision. Therefore we are happy to shed some light on the band’s songwriting and storytelling process, what they have to do with the late Mariusz Lewandowski, how influential Tolkien was on mastermind Mo and what he thinks about creative control. A wonderful interview - thank you Mo!

If you want to support Veil of Sound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Picture by Seth Abrikoos

Shirts of the day: Eremit, Mastodon

A few weeks from now, the new record by Jaye Jayle will hit the (digital) shelves and we were quite taken with it, because it fits like a glove to what we like. No, this is not Avantgarde Death Black Gothic Post-Drum’n’Bass, this is music without real borders, but for everyone who loves music for the soul. This is music in the vein of Edwards, Cohen, Johnson. Music that speaks directly to your core and that has the potential of becoming a cult classic - so you join before the hype sets in. Enjoy our interview with Evan Patterson and the many things he tells us about the record, its process and much more.

Evan is surely not anybody in our little global scene as many of his bands have become well-known: The National Acrobat, Breather Resist, Black Cross, Black Widows, Young Widows and for a few years he’s writing and publishing music as Jaye Jayle. What that name means is also explained in our interview, as well as why the new music has such a hopeful, wonderful, soulful sound in all its splendour and what Ben Chisholm has to do with it. Enjoy!

Bar McKinnon is one of those guys who are first off well-versed in so many things music that it seems as if they can talk about anything and everything all at once anywhere and everywhere. However, secondly, he might be the most energetic and enthusiastic guys you might meet out there - one can feel the Zoom connection beaming and gleaming when he starts to give a detailed answer. Why do we talk to him? Well, Umlaut, Teleorkestra and Bungle!

Bar McKinnon is a multi-instrumentalist with a strong focus on the saxophone and as he is very versatile and a virtuoso it might have been a match-made in weirdo heaven when he joined Mr Bungle a few decades ago. One can hear his skills on the band’s first three published full-lengths and he even wrote a few songs and parts on each album. After the millenium he left the band and started several projects one of them being Umlaut, an avantgarde jazz-pop band which released a few things here and there and who are surely a force to listen to. As they just released a new single (see beneath), we are very happy to have him on the show in order to talk pop music, subversity and more! Enjoy!

If you want to support VeilofSound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Photo credit: Bailey Judd

A few weeks ago we published an excerpt from Michael Tau’s book Extreme Music which deals with many aspects of music of the extreme kind, which does not necessarily mean that this is a chronology of Grindcore or Brutal Tech Death Slam Metal. Neither is he seeking out the most Avantgardish Throatsinging Mongolian or Himalayan Yak-bone-instrumented Noise-Pop, but he tries to define what is extreme music. We wanted you to send in some questions and we are happy we got several really good ones to ask Michael in this interview! Nerds of the world unite!

Michael Tau might not seem like a savant of extreme music, but he surely is as Thorsten had to admit in the interview himself not knowing several of the artists mentioned by Michael in Extreme Music. Therefore this book might also be seen like the beginning of a voyage for everyone who wants to go down a rabbit hole trying to find unheard-of music (some old, some new) and that might also be the best way to “read” this book. Sit down, read and try to catch up on some of the bands and acts dropped in here before you continue reading. But before you do this - enjoy the interview with Michael!

Nightmarer is a pretty young band compared to some of the projects and people we have on here regularly, think of Dirk Serries or Mike Watt, but the international band spread out across two continents and roughly 5,000 miles. Nevertheless, Nightmarer have released some pretty good album and their last one, Deformity Adrift (check out our review here) is a sensational lesson in how good dissonant Tech-Death can be. Reason enough for us to sit down and chat with Simon, the mastermind behind the project! Enjoy!

Whenever people are firstly confronted with this kind of music, most of them are being pushed away by the dissonance - but after some time and spinning some of the records associated with the genre, some might get a knack for it. Simon, who also runs the highly successful label (Total Dissonance Worship) and who started a pretty well-known Spotify playlist a few years ago, seems to be one of the most relaxed dudes I have ever met, but one can also feel how much time, love and energy he is putting into all of his projects! We were fortunate to talk about all of that, about how he moved from Tampa to the Pacific Northwest and much more. Enjoy the conversation!

If you want to support VeilofSound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

(Picture by: Paul A Ouzounov)

Loud as Giants is a collaboration which has been a long time coming, because they have had a mutual love for the other’s work for decades: Justin K. Broadrick and Dirk Serries. Their debut full-length “Empty Homes” can see seen as a perfect example of what happens, when two well-experienced and highly-skilled musicians work together with a mututal respect for the contributions of the other. Their four songs (combining for more than 46 minutes of music!) are wonderfully melancholic pieces between Ambient, Post-Rock, Industrial and even Shoegaze! Hence we simply had to talk to Dirk and get some more background information, on how they met, how the project developed and what is has got to do with the Pandemic! Enjoy the interview!

Empty Homes and the melancholic magic of its four tracks was surely not a surprise, when remembering the two highly skilled musicians behind the project. Whatever Dirk and Justin touch has a certain quality to it that is hard to resist, for whichever reason - be it because of their sheer talent or the definite sound or musicality - many people automatically place their ears next to their speakers in order not to miss anything. Therefore we are sure that many people will be really excited to hear more about the project from Dirk himself! Enjoy!

We must be clear - Liturgy are a band that has been redefining heavy music in general and especially Black Metal for years. With every new release they have been pushing boundaries and interwoven different tunings, different styles and even different genres into their colossal walls of sound. As they will be visiting Copenhagen next weekend and as the new record is simply neck-twisting and mind-blowing we were more than happy to get a chance to talk to Haela. Enjoy!

Surprise! Everyone who has been keeping a close eye on our A Colossal Weekend special will have been surprised to find this one atop of that page as well! Unannounced and unashamed! This interview was one of the most interesting ones which I was looking forward to for a long time, as I have been in love with Liturgy’s records for quite a while now, because their music has changed my perspective on Black Metal quite a bit. Their new record 93696 is a sure shot for my Top15 this year and I have nothing but love to offer in my review. We talked about the new record, Thelema, personal development, the joy of being in this band and much, much more!

Downfall of Gaia have just released a new record called Silhouettes of Disgust and it’s awesome as it is more Crust Punk than Black Metal. And which position is maybe the most important in Crust Punk? Yes, the drummer! Thus it should not come as a surprise that we sat down with Downfall of Gaia’s drummer Michael Kadnar and talked with him about the new record, his record label Silent Pendulum Records and much more!

Michael Kadnar is a really nice guy, open to talk to and surely one of the drummers in the business. What he does on Downfall of Gaia’s new record is nothing short of unbelievable. His other project This is Oblivion shows a very different side of him and his label Silent Pendulum regularly releases the most beautiful color combinations ever. And that are just a few things we talked about with Michael – enjoy!

Today marks the second “birthday” of Veil of Sound and yes, we could not be prouder – you have shown this little baby so much love, given us so much positive feedback, spread the word about us: Therefore, of course we want to give back something special. How do we do that? By giving you an interview with a legend, none other than the mighty Minuteman himself, Mike Watt!

Mike is a jack-of-so-many-trades. He is a force on the bass as we all know, right? But did you know that he is also having his own show on the web doing the same thing we do here? You all know the Minutemen, but did you also know that he was in fIREHOSE? That he played with Flipper, J Mascis, Porno for Pyros and the Stooges? And those are just a few of his many musical endeavors! Now he has a new project – Spirit of Hamlet together with Makoto Kawabata (from Acid Mothers Temple), Scotty Irving (Clang Quartet), and Benjy Johnson who is a highly prolific songwriter, producer and musician. The result is special in any conceivable way – you get Jazz, Punk, Avantgarde and much more and yet, it all sounds pretty organic in and of itself. Therefore we were happy and excited to get to talk with Mike about the new project. And during the talk, we got to see how meaningful, pensive and foreshadowing “Shakespeare” was. Enjoy!

Alchemy for the Dead - the title of the upcoming Spotlights record, to be released April 28 via Ipecac Recordings, is a red thread that can be found in the lyrics and themes as well as in the music itself. All of that and more were the topics that we discussed with the band!

Mario and Sarah grateful sat down with us to talk about many things, their non-love for baseball and football, their move to Pittsburgh, the importance of sound on both of their instruments, the topics of the new record and so much more. The interview showed to people who are pretty precise in their answers - another thing that is awesome about them. This is a funny, no-nonsense-interview. Enjoy our chat with two thirds of Spotlights! (Photo credit: John Pope)

The Infinity Ring is one of those new bands which will make a lasting impression on the listener, because they sound pretty timeless and classic and at the same time modern and progressive. That paradox and a lot more was the reason for us to do this interview with band leader and main song arrangeur Cameron.

Some of the other topics included their collaboration with Jarboe and how that came to fruition, the seemingly Gothic character of the songs and their haunting beauty, their quite intricate songwriting and the way the songs come to life in the studio. The Infinity Ring’s upcoming record Nemesis And Nativity will be released on April 14th via Profound Lore (the pre-orders can be placed here) and we can assure you that the record is brilliant as our review on Thursday will show you. Until then you can already get some background information on it so stoke the fires of excitement!

Sometimes we feel a certain urge to highlight and showcase musicians that not enough people take notice of and Edley O’Dowd is surely one of them. He has played with some of the most remarkable musicians of the last 50 years and is surely a jack-of-all-trades. One more reason to talk to Edley is surely that he is one of the most humble, most reserved and most selfless persons I have ever had the chance to talk to. Please enjoy the hell out of this interview!

Kylesa, Blondie, Psychic TV, Genesis P-Orridge, Toilet Boys and many, many, many more. That is the list of musicians/projects that Edley O’Dowd has been involved with throughout the course of his life in the music scene somewhere between Post-Punk, Industrial, Avantgarde, Ambient, Noise and even Sludge. Being a visual artist and a drummer by trade, he is a man of many talents who is such a nice person that it comes as no surprise that many different people want to work with him. Now he just released a new record called F(our)-ward on the Italian 13 label (find the label’s store here). The record showcases many of Ed’s talents and especially his powerful, shifty, diverse drumming - we had a lot to talk about and we are sure you can understand some of Ed’s songs a bit better when watching our video below!

You can listen to F(our)-Ward here on Bandcamp Enjoy our talk and enjoy Edley’s engaging music!

It is always fun to be told by a band that what you thought about anything related to the group (track or record titles, name of the band, artwork etc) is completely wrong - maybe valid in other circumstances but mostly completely wrong. This happened, when I interviewed Phal:Angst. Where was I wrong? Well, listen to our interview with the band. Then you will also find out what Joy Division has to do with Japanese fish.

Whiteout is a record which plays with expectations - as it oscillates back and forth between Doomjazz, Post-Rock, Synthwave, Industrial and Post-Punk. At the same time these guys have a very distinct sound (a sort of melange, if you will) and agenda (anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-hate, anti-xenophobia - basically they are completely right with opposing any kind of blue-brown bullshit). I had the pleasure to talk with two of them and to find out how the band is working, writing and conceptualizing.

You can listen to Whiteout, the latest full-length by these Viennese sound masters here on Bandcamp and read up on it via our review! Enjoy!

There are bands who make a record every two years and others publish one full-length a year. There are more productive bands and there is Fucked Up, a band with more than 100 releases to their name. One guy that was in it for all of these is founding member Mike Haliechuk who also writes most of the stuff - also for the latest record One Day, which shows yet another side of the Canadian Hardcore band! 

Fucked Up is a band of contrasts - on the one hand they are Prog-Rockers who know how to create Punk -songs, on the other they are true Punkers who use Prog-melodies. But not just that, they use elements from so many other genres, just listen to the EP preceeding One Day: The three songs on Oberon had Sludge, Doom and Synthwave elements. And on the latest full-length they show a true understanding of Pop-Punk or College Rock, and their singer Damian has never sounded so much like Dicky Barrett from the Bosstones. All of that and so much were things that Mike and Thorsten spoke about. Enjoy this not-fucked-up-interview at all!

Post-Rock bands have a tendency to elongate songs into infinity by repeating parts over and over again - it can become boring at times. Therefore it is pretty refreshing to hear a band doing Post-Rock but without these redundancies - even though there are also a lot really good ones out there who write long songs that are not redundant. One of these bands for Post-Rock lovers with short attention spans is surely jeffk from Leipzig, Germany, who has recently released their new record TAR and who were so kind to sit down with us and talk about the record and so much more!

When we were able to premiere “Fingers” from jeffk earlier this year, the reactions were as positive as we would have loved them, which was evident right from the start, because the song is just amazing. Uplifting and yet not over-the-top, heavy but not overly crushing, and performed by three musicians who each know what they are doing with their mix of Maserati and Mogwai. Who would have thought that Post-Rock is not the guys’ go-to-genre? That and so much more we found out while talking to jeffk which you will hopefully enjoy as much as the ever-growing TAR!

Dichotomy. Paradox. Contrast. All words that synonymously could be used to talk about the difference between the Indie-poppy music on Constant Smiles’ new album Kenneth Anger which will be released at the beginning of March. Bundled up together with the circumstances revolving around charismatic frontman Ben Jones this record gave us the perfect opportunity to talk with him. Enjoy!

When listening to Constant Smiles new record, one might at first listen not notice the strong contrast between the seemingly happy sounds and the introvert, thoughtful lyrics. But digging deep into the latter will make you realize that not everything is as shiny as it may look at first spin. This was one of the most important things for Thorsten to talk about when interviewing Ben, but it surely wasn’t the only thing. Enjoy our newest interview!

Releasing one record is surely not enough, a double album might suffice most, but how about creating two records at the same time, releasing them on the same day and make people wonder how much (or little) sleep you got during the process? Ulthar did the latter and have released one of the early forerunners for Death Metal Record of the Year with their bundle Helionomicon and Anthronomicon - reason enough to sit down with Shelby Lermo! 

Ulthar proved with their first two full-lengths, Cosmovore and Providence that they are a force to be reckoned with; and everyone who didn't should fall to the ground in adoration and proskynesis because the two new records are nothing short of the Death Metal version of highly effective love potion. Once you have opened your ears to them, they will creep into your auris interna, the inner ear, smear it full with said potion and you will want to listen to both records again and again. Not because they are highly accessible, quite the opposite, but because you will probably wish to understand what is going on. 

We were fortunate to talk with Shelby Lermo about the idea of releasing both records simultaneously, why not do it as a double album, how the band got through the pandemic and about his new home on the East Coast. He gives us a lot of wonderful insights into all of the above and so much more. Enjoy this interview as a kind of appetizer for the albums!

Picture by Christina Liu @ The LonelyEyelid

For decades, no centuries has mankind been dreaming of creating a symbiosis between man and machine - and music wise it might be said that no one has ever come as close to that symbiosis as Tristan Shone aka Author & Punisher. He has been developing machines for more than 15 years which enable him to create a sound that is industrial but man made, harsh yet melodic, shoegazey and metallic! And on his last album Krüller (check out our review of that miraculous record) he has taken another huge leap towards the sound that he himself envisioned years ago. And yes, that sound is addictive as one can see by looking at all the AOTY lists including Krüller!

Of course there are loads of things we could talk about with Tristan, the development of his machines, his love for Portishead, the momentary stage of his pursuit for his sound, the development of his own company but of course we still talk a lot about Krüller - also where the name for the record comes from! And we find out a tidbit about his passion for football (or soccer for our American friends)! Enjoy the interview, folks!

 So we are pretty sure you enjoyed our interview marathon between XMas and New Years - if not check our YouTube Channel for those conversations with Jarboe, Sunflo’er, Dale Crover, drowse and Noah Landis (Tension Span)! nonetheless, that marathon is over, it’s a new year and we got a new format for you, which we will try to bring frequently but irregularly - two bands interviewing each other. And how awesome is this first edition with Brutus and Psychonaut?! Two Belgian bands who released mindblowing albums late last year and now we got them here on together on our channel!

Yeah that’s right, they will interview each other and we will be hosting those sessions. So, those bands should be kinda interested in each other and take some time to come up with questions for each other. Of course, we also ask a few questions, but only a very few to make sure these bands get to know what they want to know.

In order to kickstart a format, one should have a great first edition. We think we got one of the most interesting combos possible at the moment: Two bands from mighty Belgium, two bands that know each other pretty well and who also got highly interesting questions for each other. If you want to know how well-connected they are, when they first shared a stage and what drives both bands - check out this brilliant interview - Brutus x Psychonaut, ladies and gentlemen!

The first day of the year is always the final day of our interview marathon and just like last year we like to go out on a bang! And just like last year we want to end with an interview partner who would be much too humble to accept his importance: Noah Landis who played a huge part in the Gilman Street scene in the 80s, when bands like Samiam, Green Day and his most famous one - Neurosis - shared the stage very frequently. Noah has a new project, Tension Span, which we already reviewed here, and thus we had a lot to talk about!

With 91 minutes this is one of our longest interviews ever, this is an interview for the ages. Noah’s new band is mighty interesting and so we focused on its songs somewhere between Industrial, Noise-Rock, Post-Punk and a tinge of New Wave attitutde. Other topics were his love for literature, his philantrophy and so much more. Enjoy our last interview for this marathon and, if you want to, give us node to who you’d like to be involved in our next marathon, starting on Christmas Eve!

[Photo Credit: Jorin Bukosky]

We’re now on day 7 of our Veil of Sound Xmas-Interview-Marathon and today we present to you lucky readers a conversation with Kyle Bates, the mastermind behind drowse, who released his latest album, the excellent ‘Wane Into It’, through The Flenser in November (available on vinyl here).

Coincidentally this exquisite release was reviewed by us and featured in at least one of our contributing writers top 10 albums of the year lists.

‘Wane Into It’ is an absorbing, multi-layered exercise in the concept of memory that benefits from multiple listens to fully appreciate its beauty, preferably on headphones. If exceptionally well made lo-fi/shoegaze/slowcore is your thing, check the interview out and then delve into the drowse back catalogue.

Day 5, marathon midterm and today we touch royalty. Because today’s interview partner, Dale Crover, has worked with: Mike Patton. King Buzzo. Kurt Cobain. And these are just a few of the names he’s worked with. Starting out in the Pacific Northwest and leaving with King Buzzo from there right before Seattle exploded, he also left behind a band he used to play in you might know: Nirvana. But hey, being one of only two constant members of The Melvins ain’t so bad either, huh? We talked with him about the new Melvins record, the band itself, his relation to Buzz and so much more.

When talking to Dale, one does not have the feeling as if he is talking to somebody who was in so many bands and projects with so many famous people and musicians, artists and vocalists. Why? Because if there is one thing Dale certainly ain’t, it’s arrogant. He is a funny, regular guy when talking to you pretty openly about how the new record came to be, what it is like to be a part of the Melvins for so long, that he seemingly understands Buzz blindfoldedly and how it feels to be 69th best drummer in the world (according to a certain magazine, that doesn’t know anything)! Enjoy folks!

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

So, day three already. After the great and mighty Jarboe and Alcest, we now want to give some of you the chance to maybe discover a new band you might not have been giving attention by now: Sunflo'er from Potsdam in Upstate New York. Their latest album all these darlings and now me is bursting of energy and brimful with mighty, clever ideas and twists and turns that show a modern Hardcore band aiming for the sky. Enjoy our video-chat with the whole band!

 I did not know too much about Sunflo’er before this interview and me preparing for it. But listening through their discography and especially their latest album, I was not surprised because the label through which the four guys are releasing their music usually never fails in their roster-choices: Dark Trail Records . And they do not disappoint this time around either. Sunflo’er has made a giant leap and maybe released the modern American Hardcore album of 2022 next to Soul Glo and The Callous Daoboys. Therefore we talk about the record and the songwriting process behind it, but also about Wes Craven and why one of them has a box of Corn Dogs in his fridge! Enjoy!

Here we are now - entertain you! The Veil of Sound Xmas-Interview-Marathon 2022 is upon you. We will give you one interview with an amazing artist or band every day. Some will be podcast-only, some text-, several video-based interviews. And of course we want to give you some of the finest and most popular artists around - need proof for that? Well, how about we kick this off with Jarboe! Yes, the one! The lady who certainly changed Michael Gira's life and Swans' sound. Who released an awesome collab with Neurosis and so much more! 

There is also a very up-to-date-reason for this interview - the re-release of one of her seminal solo-releases: Sacrificial Cake which originally was released nearly 30 years ago. At a time, when it was considered to be a twin-record to Gira's Drainland (there were even some promo CDs sent out with tracks from both records). The record is mindblowingly different and diverse and doesn't shy away from tracks that at first glance don't fit in with the tracks before or after. Nevertheless, there is one thing that connects them all - Jarboe's voice and musical quality. We talked with her in detail about the record, its songwriting and production, the influence of New York City and much much more! We are very proud to kickstart our hearty VoS-Xmas-Interview-Marathon with this nearly one-hour long interview which you can listen to here straight away or on the streaming platform of your choice:

 You can also grab your copy of the re-release of Sacrificial Cake via The Circle Music!

Photo: Tamara Rafkin

 [Photo Credit: Buzz Osborne]

 Get Me The Fuck Out of Here was a knucklehead jab out of nowhere. Nobody here had expected this sound which is as warm as R’n’B (YES!) and as dynamic as classic Shoegaze. An interview with the mastermind behind a band that no one should miss who is into surprising records!

When talking to Matt Wainwright one has the feeling of talking to a person who is quite chilled on the hand but really serious about his music on the other hand. In some way that also reflects in his music. Shoegaze is a genre which could also be described as a ‘white boys club’ with only seldom people of color joining in for the fun of staring down at your sneakers. And when one comes around who knows about that, who is not angry of being alone in that club with his friends and of being the standout act then that can become either a novelty act or a somewhat groundbreaking release. Cold Gawd’s recent full-length made us believe that this is the second - something not really heard of before. Reason enough to talk with Matt and find out how he sees his band’s position inside the genre. And maybe also what “Magic Matt” has to do with it ;-)

Johnny Cash’s “Hurt“. Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love“. Jimi Hendrix‘ “All Along The Watchtower“. But also Travis‘ “Baby One More Time“. Type-O-Negative’s “Cinnamon Girl“. Clem Snide’s ”Beautiful” Or even worse, The Calling’s ”London Calling”. U2’s ”Fortunate Son”. Limp Bizkit’s ”Faith”. Yes, I know that you know – all of these are cover versions. Of course you, as the title to this special already implies. Today we want to have a look at cover versions and what makes them good or when do they turn sour? There is also a cause for us to do so, the release of a really great EP by some friends of ours. Årabrot from Scandinavia, whose Heart-EP is out today. We have a lot of goodies, so just move along and enjoy! 

When we heard about Kjetil and Karin doing an EP full of cover versions it manifested right before our eyes - ’We gotta do a bit more than just a review, we gotta dissect the art of cover versions!’ Well, of course the ONE question always connected to cover versions is a simple and simultaneously most difficult one – what is a good cover version? Must it be a complete homage not changing too much, like Peter Gabriel did it with The Magnetic Fields’ classic ”The Book Of Love” or the Faith No More cover of ”Easy” (which only differs in that remarkable ”uuurrghhhhhhhnnn” moaner Patton gives at 1:54)? If covering artists want to show their respect for a song which, in their opinion, is perfect – then this way is the way. Listen to Nirvana’s version of the Bowie-classic ”The Man who Sold the World” and you can hear that the only thing they changed is the tuning more or less. Nevertheless, the track gains a completely unknown quality when performed by Kurt Cobain who at that point already had suicidal tendencies. And to make it clear, even if a band like In Flames covers Genesis’ ”Land of Confusion” there is not that much of a change, in my opinion, only because they riff it out much harder, speed it up one notch and switch the vocals into Melo-Death-mode. It’s basically the same structure just in a different notion. A good cover, even if it is not a real change to the song; however, converting a song’s genre is not always easy, because the novelty factor only goes such a long way.

This is an interview which might have been the longest in the making. Roughly a year ago, Ghost Bath released their latest album Self Loather (review here) and we were really taken with it. Therefore we are more than happy that we now finally got the chance to talk with one of the guys behind the project to talk a lot of things - including the way the music works for them and is created in a way that at least the interviewer would not have imagined!

By definition, a ‘ghost bath’ is a specific way of taking one’s own life, with the remaining body being drowned and thus looking like a ghost. However, when talking with a member of one of the American DSBM bands, namely Ghost Bath, it would be much too easy to only focus on that topic, as Tim has much more to talk about. Thus we touched upon which kind of music he likes to listen to, how Self-Loather is the end of a trilogy and how much of it was written and created during the pandemic. Among other things!

Picture by John Van de Mergel (brothersinraw.com)

On a Thursday night in late April, which was quite chilly by then, three guys from three different countries (Finland, the USA and Germany) are standing outside a tent at Holland’s Roadburn Fesitval listening to a Belgian band play music that sounds like from the Middle East (Syria?) mixed with a bit of Jazz and lots of Psychedelic. The band? Wyatt E. The guys? Joe, Martin and me. The experience? Mind-blowing. Veil of Sound HAD to get an interview with the guys!

Even months after the release of āl bēlūti dārû (you can find our review here), the record gets spun here a lot, because the record is mesmerizing, enchanting and haunting - and all of that in a literal sense! We were very fortunate to sit down with Sébastien and talk about the concept behind the band, the prejudices of cultural appropriation the band has to face at times, his non-knowledge of Jazz and why he loves Roadburn Festival so much! Enjoy!

Damnation festival should need no introduction to anyone interested in heavy music festivals in the UK. From it's humble beginnings it has blossomed (through a lot of hard work, it must be said) to become Europe's largest indoor metal festival catering to 6000 music fans. The engagement to the festival goers from it's creator Gavin McInally is legendary. And we were beyond happy to sit down with Gavin to talk all things Damnation festival.

Picture by Raz

This upcoming Friday there will the musical equinox again - when the mainstream and the underground will sharpen their ears and both listen to the new record by Dead Cross! Believe us - it’s a really charming version of LIGHTNING in an exploding bottle! Therefore we are happy to give you some background information on the record through this interview with guitar maniac Michael Crain!

Crain, as the other band members call him, has gone through some serious stuff in the last few years and that seemingly incited his playing leading to even more furious spins and riffs, licks and shreds. II will once again be “classic” California Old-School Hardcore with loads of parts remindung us off bands like the Dead Kennedys. Michael tells us about the creation of the songs, who does what and joins when along in the process and he doesn’t spend much time on the Pacific Highway even though one might assume him to do. This interview was a hell of a lot of fun to do and we hope that comes across for all of you!

O. is the head behind Haeresis Noviomagi. He is the guitar player in Turia. O. is the only member of Iskandr. He is in Solar Temple. He did/does lots of other bands and projects in the widespread Dutch Black Metal scene. O. is our interview partner for today and we are really glad to get to learn more about him and so will you!

Talking to such an interesting and important figure for the Black metal scene of a whole country can turn out to be a total disaster depending on whether the person is self-centered or not, as in this case. He is a very well-spoken and thoughtful person, and we talk a lot about the different sides of history and how difficult it can be if we try to see it only as positive or negative. We also learn about his love for psychedelic music and how he approaches his songwriting. Enjoy the interview with this interesting guy and enjoy the music he makes under whichever banner it is being released, be it Turia, Iskandr, Solar Temple or some of the others which we will talk about!

 NULL is upon us. It is the latest record by Noise-mongers KEN Mode, whose version of Blackened Hardcore might be the most intricate thing to grasp, when trying to unravel all the single elements of their music. Together their music is somewhere AmRep, Relapse, Black Metal, Hardcore and so much more. Therefore we are lung-explodingly proud to present you this interview with mastermind Jesse Matthewson today!

KEN Mode - the name itself will be explained in the video - is one of those bands beloved by people from various genres as they themselves are hardcore-punk by attitude for sure, noise by sound definitely, black metal by riffing basically and yet they are so much more. In our interview Jesse confirms his love for the Melvins, why he’s nowadays so fond of modern recording equipment and why he likes later Propagandhi more than their earlier stuff. Enjoy our latest videos and tell us what you think of KEN Mode and their new record NULL which you can order here.

 “Lifting the veil from underground music” - our slogan and our duty. And one of those underground secrets which we want to promote is certainly OAHK, the shoegaze/alternative/noise/slowcore-one-man-project by Bryan Ziolkowski. Anybody that I met along the way and whom I played OAHK’s last record immediately felt aghast by what is recorded on tape here: one of the most touching, dark yet hopeful records you might meet this year. Hauntingly personal, lovingly arranged and meticulously structured music that will not leave you. But still the guy has not enough people who know about his awesome music - that needs to change!

When I was told about the project a few months ago by one of the nicest people I ever met online and who has a taste in music 99,9% just like mine, I immediately went to the interwebs and listened to Tiny Husks and man, J.T. was right again. Loved it, talked to Bryan how great the record is and asked him if he would be open to do an interview. Surely he was and when I said that re-telling the story behind the record was of course too intimate and personal he just said “You can ask me anything, buddy!” So I tried to talk to him not only about the mindblowingly good music (the best Flenser-record never to have been released on The Flenser!!!) but also about the story behind it. Listen to our latest interview and understand why everyone falls so in love with Bryan and his wife, their story and the music which he wrapped it in.

 Guess who’s back, back again - VoS is back, tell your friend! Yeah, that’s right, we are back from our little summer break with another interview we are really proud of: Terence Hannum from Locrian gave us a lot of interesting and thoughful insight into how the band works, why there was such a long break and much more!

Who would have guessed that the way the band works is pretty visual, or that Terence has a lot to say about Florida Hardcore, or what is a good reason for him to have moved away from Chicago. Terence is a highly knowledgeable person with lots of interests and things for sure, and if you have Locrian for a while you should be aware that the band surely has a certain way of looking at things, social developments and our evolution as a society. Of course we spent a lot of time talking about their latest record New Catastrophism, which our own Dan reviewed here.

Enjoy this mighty entertaining podcast episode and be sure to check out all the other awesome interviews we already have online for you and in the upcoming weeks for more high-quality content!

Initially we set out to take a break from releasing all these incredible interview for August, but when the opportunity arose for me to interview Jan Hoffmann of Long Distance Calling, I just could not resist and had to release this short but very interesting talk. 

Jan and I talked about their new album Eraser which is out on Friday via Ear Music (you can expect my review of it tomorrow afternoon), how it felt for LDC releasing two albums without touring in between, the inspiration behind their shift in their musical style and much more. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did conducting it. 

You can expect more insightful interviews from September on and you can rest assured, that we have some really incredible stuff in our pockets.

Photo by EKATERINA GORBACHEVA

If one asks 1,000 post-metal fans to give us five post-metal bands one of the most frequently mentioned ones would surely be Russian Circles. As the trio is soon releasing their next studio full-length named Gnosis we knew we had to get a chance to talk to the band. Luckily bass player Brian Cook had time to talk with us!

In a few days the new album by American Post-metal-masters Russian Circles will be hitting the shelves. Gnosis has a lot of the elements we all came to love by the trio which was formerly based in Chicago and is now spread all other the US. We had the chance to sit down with Brian and talk about the new record, song titles, a new approach to songwriting, how he doesn’t really remember officially joining the band and much more. Enjoy this new episode of the VoScasts!

PS: We are terribly sorry for the bad audio quality which seems a problem on our end. But it should still be good for lots of info!

Picture by Mathieu Bredeau

Jesus Lizard plus Snapcase = Unsane. One might think so, but Unsane is more than a near-indescribable mixture of Noise Rock and Punk/Hardcore. Unsane is a wqay of coping with big city life yet not leaving the city. It is a soundtrack to a city that doesn't care. And it is the child of Chris Spencer - whom we interviewed this week for you pleasure!

Okay, admittedly I am a 90s kid when it comes to music and that surely shows in my love for Unsane as this band always had a certain flair of dangerousness about it. Unsane was dangerous and scary without being silly or dumb. Their really inimitable covers are product of a love for horror and crime. Their sound was always uniquely hard and edgy, and Chris' voice is something you will not forget in all its intensity. These are some of the things, Chris and I talked about in a little over half an hour. Enjoy this new episode of the VoScasts!

 Talking to Thomas from Arizona post-rock phenom still motions is always a really rewarding thing, as he is a rather thoughtful person but never sparse in his answers. Just like the second record of his band is never sparse but really cleverly arranged and thoughtfully crafted. We were able to sit down with him for an interesting 45 minutes - hopefully you enjoy it as much as we do!

A few days ago we released our review of syn · the · sis, the second full-length by still motions, and we were really happy to talk to Thomas Brenneman, the driving force behind the band. He is not only the founding father of still motions, as we get to know during the interview, he is also a talented guitar builder whose guitars are based on classic models but always very colorful and bright. This and much more are the things we talked with him about in this new episode of our video interviews!

Photo by Caroline Harrison

This week’s video-interview is a good symbol for our slogan “Lifting The Veil off Underground Music” - because Brendon Randall-Myers might not be the most famous artist but he for sure is a very versatile and interesting one. We were lucky to have gotten this interview with him, so enjoy him talking about his musical development, noise and metal music and how his latest collaboration album came to life!

Brendon has been the last conductor of the famous Glenn Branca Ensemble and has studied composition, but also has a fascination for metal music. His newest project will be unleashed onto this world of ours in a few weeks and it is a very shifty, diverse and atmospheric piece of metal that he worked on with Doug Moore from Pyrrhon. Aveilut might change the listening habits of lots of people because it’s dense and full of atmosphere but it never tries to overpower the listener. Maybe also because of its birthing which surely is not a regular one… if you want to find out more, check out our interview!

We have had a lot of musical “first’s” other the last couple of weeks here at VoS - just remember Dälek as our first HipHop-act. This week we presented a review of the upcoming record by Zola Jesus named Arkhon - and we were so lucky and happy to get an interview with her!

Nika, who has a typically diverse American background from multiple corners of the world and who also relocated from Arizona to Wisconsin, explained why she makes dark pop music, the influence of her circle of friends on her work and why the only good football team is from Wisconsin! Enjoy our podcast-interview!

When talking about artists with a wide array of genres they cover with their different projects, one such not forget Jay Gambit from Philadelphia as his projects go from industrial and post-punk to avantgarde and experimental. Just listen to his two maybe most famous projects: Crowhurst and Executioner's Mask - so very different and yet there is one connecting thing: Jay and his voice from the grave. In light of the upcoming album by Executioner's Mask we sat down with him for one of our funniest and most intimate interviews. 

Jay is one of those music buffs who seem to know basically anything and everything, so after a very short gap of only 5 months we are having a second interview with him (the first one was at the end of 2021) but now we are, of course, focusing on the new album by EM called Winterlong which will be released next Friday and which at its core is one of the best and most versatile post-punk records of the year. As my friend Ralph always says, post-punk was never gone and when you listen to artists like Jay it also becomes pretty apparent why! This is no Bauhaus- oder Joy Division-cover band but a band pushing the boundaries and giving new impulses to the scene. And all of that because of having been in so many different projects that he now can turn to the joy of making people dance and think at the same time. 

And the fact that he did the whole interview in his robe makes it even better - will the robe ever fall? Is this the sexiest interview we'll ever do? Well, you can only find out when watching!

A few weeks ago we already had a short video special when we were talking to Nathan Gray about the problems of marketing. As we said then, we will not do that regularly but every now and then. This week this special became a little longer so we decided to release it as a regular video-episode for you. We spoke to Nate Hall about the sometimes problematic constellation of a musician and a music journalist via the example of Matt Pike from High on Fire or Sleep. 

To point it out, we are not okay with misogyny, xenophobia, hate because of sex or gender, fascism and lot more things that shall not all be mentioned here. When Nate published a statement on Facebook a few weeks back this was enough for Thorsten to ask whether we should do an interview on exactly that topic and fortunately Nate agreed. Hope you like it and maybe it makes you think a little bit.

Picture by Evgeny Salganik

Today is our J G D. Our what? Jeremy Galindo Day! Jonas gave you his review here here and we also spoke to the man behind the record, Jeremy Galindo, whom most of you will know as one of the guys behind TWDY. But beware and follow the instructions please!

We wanted you to listen to this track first as it is necessary to know what awaits us when The Introvert’s first full-length will be released via dunk!records on June 2nd. You should know that this is not a project by This Will Destroy You, it’s a project by one of its band members and as such it’s already quite different to one of the most successful post-rock bands. Jeremy is a easy to talk to person and thus talking with him about his love for film scores, ambient music and also the approach he had to making this kind of music was very easy and pleasant. He showed a lot of thoughtfullness and gave some insights on the correlationb between the records and the time when it was conceived, the pandemic. Carry the Bomb, Carry the Power is in a clear way a child of its time with a bright ray of hopefulness on the horizon. Enjoy our video and leave some feedback on our socials!

A few days ago we posted our first HipHop review here on Veil of Sound, a review of Dälek's latest record Precipice - and of course we were happy as f ... when Will Brooks aka MC Dälek agreed to do an interview with us. Therefore - here is our interview with none other than Dälek, enjoy!

One basically cannot talk about abstract hiphop without mentioning Dälek, an act that has revolutionized the notion of what hiphop can be by combining hiphop with noise, ambient and sometimes even metal ideas. His conscious rap approach to his lyrics also made Will an icon among those who try to see things from more than one angle within the hiphop community. Thorsten sat up with him and talked about the new record, his wish for hope in his music, his relationship to Ipecac and touring with bands like Jesu and ISIS, but also of course about the political situation in the US and the fact that Dälek is somewhat of an outsider in both genres - hiphop and noise. Sit down and sip up what the man's gotta say!

Picture by Al Overdrive
https://www.al-overdrive.com/

Interview-Sunday here on VoS and we are having another really famous guest - Greg Anderson. One half of Southern Lord, one half of SunnO))), member of legendary bands like Thor’s Hammer, Goatsnake or Engine Kid and now The Lord.

We were fortunate to talk with Greg about his new record, which he released via Southern Lord on April 23 and which serves as the soundtrack to a movie he scored. We talk about the album, some songs and features on it, the differences between THE LORD and SunnO))), his love for several of the classic horror filmscorers and his general passion for music. It surely was a pleasure talking to Greg and we hope you will enjoy this audio-interview as well:

Whoever has listened to Stygian Bough, the side-project of Funeral Doom masterminds Bell Witch has also read the name Erik Moggridge at one point or another. Early this year, Erik released another full-length under his usual stage moniker, Aerial Ruin. It contains many points that should be talked about, amongst them a 21-minute folk-song (!), and thus we did exactly that and are really proud of being able to give you this interesting video interview with him. Enjoy!

Loss Seeking Flame (here you can find our review of it) is remarkable in the way it was written and in how the vocals were arranged because very often we do not here ONE Erik, but many Eriks. How? Well, you gotta listen to this interview to find out. And yes, this is a bit outside our usual Post-Rock and Post-Metal realms, but Aerial Ruin also represents perfectly what we are striving for: Shedding light on music one should pay attention to if not wanting to stick to the same same, over and over again. And one thing is for sure: You will be hard-pressed to find a record with a better arrangement of the vocals this year than Loss Seeking Flame. But now - enjoy our conversation with Erik Moggridge aka Aerial Ruin!

Heaviness is important! Really important. Many people would say that Chicago-based sludge/doom/noise band Indian are the heaviest thing they ever heard - if you listen to their records that becomes quite clear. But when listening to Copenhagen’s sludge-maniacs LLNN one has admit, there’s a strong new contender. Just let Unmaker cleanse your ears with corroded pincers and that will become quite apparent!

Unmaker (here you can find our review to it) is one of those records which will leave more than a bit of an impression on one’s ears and minds. And therefore we wanted to sit down with LLNN’s singer Christian Bonnesen and talk with him about riffs, sound and heaviness, about song titles, his recent bachelor party and his love for “the Bizkit”! A really enjoyable interview offering lots of knowledge about the band and Christian himself!

On Friday Ultha released their latest record - AOTY-material if anyone asks me - and it's a record that demands attention for all its glory. And of course we were honored, when Ralph suggested we could do the only video interview for it, one of only two interviews for the record. Not because of exclusive-ness but because the album is great and offers so much we can and must talk about! 

All That Has Never Been True is one of those records which come around not too often, and for a band like Ultha to release such an opus magnum after some turbulent years, a near-split, several new projects by the members of the band and of course, in the middle of this pandemic: This is a glorious return to form and there have been several voices who say that this is the band's best record to date. But there is so much more to talk about. So don't worry if your computer is broken, when it says that the length of the interview is over 90 (!) minutes - great things demand for a lot of attention to detail! Enjoy the video-interview or the podcast but most all - enjoy All That Has Never Been True!

Normally we do not do something like a news segment, because we think that there are much better sites for that. However, this one is somewhat different: a few days ago, Nathan Gray posted a longer text on his socials saying that he has to speak about his inner struggles with the promotion of his last album Rebel Songs and how he has to cope with the inadequacy of the marketing compared to the record. As this is a topic that interests us a lot as well, we met up for a short special interview and talked about it all, from different angles and perspectives and in detail. We consider this short interview one of our best to date. Tell us what you think! 

Thorsten sat down with Nathan and they talked about how he thinks that the promotion for the new record did not reflect on the nature of the songs and represented only a small part of Rebel Songs. He also clearly said that it was not about blaming anyone but him as he signed off on those things. They also looked at it from a historical perspective and set the whole discussion into deep and meaningful contexts with Nathan giving us a lot of insight into his inner turmoil and the result of it all. Give this one a good listen and think about the problems of marketing and promoting records in our time and day as this is definitely something to be aware of in a time when one can spent every minute of the day listening to a song from a new record. We wish Nathan all the best for his way and we can only encourage you to listen to the record once again.

Frank Zappa had one of the larger discographies with supposedly more than 60 full-lengths and countless live-records and more. Scott Heller aka Dr. Space surely can rival those numbers because his discography is also immeasurable and uncountable. Together with his main project the Øresund Space Collective he has 70 releases under his belt (as counted by Discogs) and thus we had enough to talk about. Enjoy! 

When listening to Øresund Space Collective one can totally understand the old saying by Timothy Leary: "Turn on, tune in and drop out" when he was talking about psychedelics and drugs - the Swedish-Danish collective is able to achieve this effect without the need for any narcotics. For me, being a straight-edger for life it has the effect that I can completely get lost in the sounds of Dr. Space and his fellow musicians. All very talented jammers with a perfect understanding of what they want to achieve with each specific jam. Scott talks about how the music is created and much more. So, sit back, turn on and understand.

This week's interview is a short one, but it is also a very fun one. Talking to one's favorite bands from back in the day, who are still around, is just an immense pleasure to do. When I had the opportunity to interview Hot Water Music I just had to do it. 

You can now listen to to this talk about their music and their new album on YouTube and via your favorite podcast streaming plattform. I really enjoyed talking with these guys even for just the 25 minutes we had. The band had their ups and downs over the years, bu with Feel The Void they have released an incredibly strong album, so were happy to have this talk with them available for you now.

It is always a pleasure to interview people who enjoy that situation and I would say the best interviews are those when humour and reflection meet. That combination is not always given but with Eugene S. Robinson it really always is. This time we interviewed him about the new record by his transcontinental band Buñuel!

A few weeks ago we already reviewed Killers Like Us by Buñuel and it got rave reactions by you our readers. We have already hinted at the fact that we interviewed Eugene about the band, their name, the way they write their music! And if you want to find out how Eugene perceived the difference between American and German cops well, here you can find out!

There has hardly been any act within the realm of Drone, Doom and Black Metal in the last ten years or so who has been constantly as much as ALN and his Mizmor-project. The guy is able to give us all lots of food for thought and at the same time create soundscapes that are never stagnant in their successes but seemingly always pushing for new dimensions of depth and meaning. Whenever one listens to his record and goes about his lyrics there will be lots of ideas and questions left open. In order to close some of these we sat down with ALN and sought for some answers. 

Wit's End, Mizmor's latest EP (released in mid-January via Gilead) proved that once again, this time not just lyrically but also musically. You can read up on Thorsten review of the record here and then dive deep into the interview. We tried to find out if Thorsten's idea of a tendency towards Radiohead and Sigur Ros was just a stupid idea and when was the last time, that ALN was at his wit's end. Or how we as individuals and as mankind could cope with losing our ability to find a solution, when we are all collectively at our wit's end.

<b>Those of you who follow Veil of Sound closely, very closely might have stumbled across this sentence a few weeks ago: <i>”Maybe this interview will be the start for another series of interviews, who knows?”</i> was the end of our article accompanying our interview with Jacob Bannon. That was part of our series to close out 2021 and here we go: we have yet another interview with a Converge member not talking about the band itself too much. This time it’s Kurt Ballou and our topic is “producing”!</b>

When people talk about music they often talk about the skills of a certain instrumentalist or vocalist. Sometimes, very seldom, people talk about the production of a record and then it is even more difficult to know what a producer does. Therefore we were very fortunate when Kurt Ballou agreed to do an interview with us and gave us the opportunity to learn how he became a producer, how he sees the role of producers (and himself as one of them) and how important the individual process is.

So, as usual, we do not want to keep you waiting for too long – enjoy our interview with Kurt Ballou!

<b>Because I am a huge fan of their newest work, I wanted to interview Shoreline and fortunately Hansol was kind enough to sit down and have a talk with me.</b>

Because their album has so many different topics in the songs, we had plenty to talk about, but we didn't only talk about their music, but also the band itself and the ideas behind it.

It was a real chill conversation, that could've gone on for much longer, just because Hansol is such a smart and nice guy to talk to.

Usually we do not go back-to-back with video-interviews but we wanted to once more show our love for a young French Post-Rock band from Lyon, whom we already featured on our special for the wonderful Post.Lyon Festival at the end of May: Quintessence! Thorsten had a cool chat with the guys and found out a lot about them and their music. And we are also happy that one of our questions did not end in a split of the young hopefuls ;-)

Formed in Lyon in 2018, Quintessence hit the ground running, releasing their debut EP, Demain, après la Lune in September of the same year. Their structured, methodical approach to song writing is immediately obvious, from the opening track, “Demain” on their debut to the “M87” demo song released in 2019, they weave patterns and tones into a series of dynamic musical passages that take you from the intricate to the raucous.

The duo demonstrate influences beyond post-music, with riffs and tones so clearly rooted in metal that they might as well wear a greasy denim jacket with “Anthrax” scrawled on the back. But this doesn’t define them. Those riffs work themselves around the melodies and bring grit to the gravy – a little bite to the apple. When the music falls away 2/3 of the way through “Libération”, it’s a metal-inspired tone that introduces the next passage, laying foundations for the tremolo-picked high notes to soar and wheel far above.

Listen to these two guys from central France and be one of those who can tell your friends in a year or two “I told you about those guys already a long time ago!”

We are closing in on the release of the last video we did for Consouling Sounds’ live event, but before we present you with the last one in a few weeks, we have another smasher for you. OVTRENOIR!

OVTRENOIR is the brainchild of William Lacalmontie and involves some other people from the circles surrounding Throane in Paris which again is in some way affiliated with the Church of Ra revolving around Amenra. The quartet has released a very special Consouling Sounds-release: SOUL0150, the 150th number in Consouling Sounds SOUL-series, was their full-length debut Fields Of Fire and it surely says a lot if one’s record is the anniversary release for such an established label.

Therefore it was an honor for us to get a chance to talk to Dehn and Angeline about the band, their sound, their roots and much more. And we are very glad we can share all of that with you.

Day 9 - final day and what do you do for a grand finale? You go out big! And that’s what we do! Ending this marathon that started with Motorpsycho and had some of our favorite artists - there cannot be anybody but the one and only Jacob Bannon! However, we will not be talking about Converge or Wear Your Wounds too much, but rather about his art for he is one amazing artist; everyone who has looked at the Converge-record covers will know what I am talking about.

Jacob’s art is not only visible in the Converge releases but also on a lot of the early Hydra Head 7”s like Corrin, on records by Cave In, Knut or hardcore classics like American Nightmare’s self-titled record or Every Time I Die’s Hot Damn!! However to him artwork is much more than just the single visual created for it.

Today is our first video and audio interview in this already huge special. We take a little pride in covering a wide range of musical genres and today we have another hardcore legend. Nathan Gray is mostly known for his work in boysetsfire, but since a few years he releases solo albums. With Rebel Songs he has now released his third album and the first one under the monicer of Nathan Gray & The Iron Roses. 

You can probably tell that I am admiring Nathan and his work a lot and it was a huge dream come true talking to him for so long. We talked a lot about his new album, the ideas behind it and some very funny background stories. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it.

By now everyone should know about our year-long collaboration with Belgium quality-label Consouling Sounds. In preparation for their two-day festival at the beginning of October (aptly named 24Hours of Deep Listening) we conducted a series of video-interviews with several artists on their roster, which we will release bit by bit. Today we feature our interview post-blackgaze newcomers Mother, an upcoming big player from Ostend, if you ask us. .

Mother is a really remarkable band for they are playing the old “loud vs quiet”-game to perfection and yet never let go off their black-metal roots, especially not on their latest one-track-EP Interlude 1 which is one of the two interludes in their 5-part-story about the relationship between a mother and her child. And now - without any further ado, we give you: Mother!

For the 24 Hours of Deep Listening festival over at Consouling Sounds, Thorsten sat down with Barst and talked about the idea behind their latest creation.

Back in 2008, Mike Keirsblick and his friend Miguel started a label which should become one of the driving forces in alternative, experimental and avantgarde music - Consouling Sounds. With releases from such influential artists as Nadja or A Storm of Light/IIVII, thisquietarmy or Alkerdeel the label has developed a very open approach to music and an even wider idea of which music they want to do next. Oh, by the way - yeah, for more than ten years now they have also been working closely with a little band originally from Kortijk you might have heard of - anyone familiar with Amenra?! 

Most of you will already have heard about the love-relationship between Veil of Sound and Consouling Sounds, Belgium's finest label in everything between Ambient and Black Metal. But have you already visited our special page devoted to Consouling Sounds? Consouling.veilofsound.com is a special page designed to promote the label, its philosophy and the people behind it as we think they are really special and everyone should know about it. On this page we will gather all our reviews and interviews with Consouling-artists and much more. Our web wizard Sebastian even built "a few timelines" which will enable you to get to know the label and its sublabels in a more detailed fashion. 

Of course one cannot start such a huge special without looking at the people who started it all and who have kept the flame burning for more than 13 years now. Therefore we will start this series of monthly interviews with none other than Nele and Mike for graciously gave us a lot of their time in order to create one of the longest VoS-interviews ever and showed why Consouling Sounds is also somehow Consouling Family - a family we are proud to be a part of!

There have been many musical highlights this year, varying from blistering mid-covid live shows to the superb post-covid album releases. The underground music scene has had to stay strong and battle through a tough eighteen months, that tested both the creative abilities of the bands as well as the financial viability of it all. Thankfully most have ploughed through these hard times, and we are now reaping the rewards with some incredibly original and diverse albums releases. One such album is Shy, Low’s latest offering, Snake Behind The Sun which is due for release on 08-10-2021 through the mighty Pelagic Records. I’m not going to go all “review” on it here as the album write up is already available on our website if you wanna sample the fruits of their labour. And let me add, no fruit was spared in the making of this colossal release.

For the Post.Lyon festival a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to chat with Erik and Eric from Lòdz.

We interviewed several bands for our collaboration with the masterminds behind Post.Lyon Online Festival which took place last May, one of them was Lòdz. In case you missed the awesome livestream, you now have the chance to rewatch our interview. We talked about how they rehearsed with their new drummer, how the pandemic has affected them and much more.

Curbeaters. Hellström. Planks. Ultha. Four bands who share one member: Ralph Schmidt, one of these walking encyclopedias of underground music. And now there is a fifth band that one must reckon with: Ropes of Night, Ralph's latest project.

No matter which side of the Atlantic Ocean one is talking about, Ralph will know it. Doing an interview with him is easy, because he knows what he is talking about and always has great bands to talk about. For this interview we concentrated on his band Ropes of Night, that just released the Post-Punk record of the year!

When I first got talking with Ralph some time ago I had the impression of a person who is very clear in his ways, aesthetics, politics and ethics. One of his main points is that no person is apolitical, no matter how hard one can claim to be. His bands and their output are usually as clearcut and as clearly divided as his personal morals and beliefs are. Upon hearing that he wanted to do a Post-Punk record, my initial thought was that this way a deviation from his usual path. But the first few beats and parts of Impossible Space wiped those thoughts away with a powerful bodyslam. And it also becomes clear that this is another stone in the mosaic of Ralph's puzzle of dark music, when watching the highly entertaining Video-Interview with him here or when listening to the audio-version of it on Spotify.

This week we will, once again, do something different and offer you a video-interview instead of the regular written one - and who better for such a “premiere” here on VoS than French post-innovators Where Mermaids Drown?!

We interviewed several bands for our collaboration with the masterminds behind Post.Lyon Online Festival which took place last weekend, one of them was Where Mermaids Drown. And in order to present you something fresh and new every once in a while we took the liberty and show those of you who didn’t watch the live-stream this video.

Be sure to check out our review of their recent debut EP.

We had the pleasure to do an interview with one of those bands that are the most difficult to categorize - Årabrot! To nobody’s surprise, it was such an easy and fun interview, one of the nicest ones we have done so far, enjoy!

Sometimes it is just so much fun to interview bands that time flies and then you notice that it’s already an hour! That maybe a bit too long for a video with nothing but dialogue - in the case of Norwegian rockers Årabrot there are just so many things that we had to talk about: their life as a couple, past and future collaborations, their love for literature, Steve Albini and even clipping.!