Veiled - SE/CT - Metal Epidemic

Veiled – SE/CT
Release Date: 18th October 2024
Label: Seek & Strike
Stream
Genre: Deathcore
FFO: Distant, Lorna Shore, To The Grave.
Review By: Mark Young

And so now to SE/CT, the debut release from Veiled, which provides what is a very agreeable noise, especially for fans of deathcore. So, before I go further with this, I have to point out that whilst I understand the appeal of this genre, and that I can appreciate its heaviness and skill involved in being able to play it, it simply doesn’t do anything for me at all.

Getting that out of the way early, I thought it was for the best. I can, however, offer an objective review, which is what I do with every album sent my way by the boss.

Still with us? Ok, let’s go.

After the intro, they blast in with Forgive Me, which has one of the densest sounds you will hear, but it is one you have heard elsewhere. They are on the front foot with this, putting it all into their opening gambit to keep you engaged. It is furious, and they keep the cleans to a minimum (opinions will vary) but what you do get is a band just going for it and if you stay, that’s great. If you don’t, be well, but don’t let the door hit you on the way out. The Sentence hits in much the same way, a relentless barrage that gives them a great one-two and shows that they have a handle on how to write songs. Lament does that 3^rd song slow down as it starts off, they throw the shackles off and hit the BPMs into the red. This is an assured performance so far, with some of the deepest death growls you will hear anywhere. It’s heavy, with one eye on keeping that sonic landscape interesting.

What is interesting to me is that there is a standard approach to each song, I don’t mean that they are happy to rinse and repeat. What I mean is that they look to make each one as interesting as they can whilst staying within their chosen style. When they do employ the cleans more prominently, Hellbound, I don’t find myself hating it, but it does jar, especially when you have those absolutely hard AF extreme vocals flying at you. What you cannot argue with is that they know how to hit you with the riffs, and arrangements that work. Deathchoke works in a similar manner to Hellbound, with the cleans in there, which I don’t care for. There is something about the cleans that I just don’t vibe with.

The Root of Mans Impurity sees them going back into that deep and low attack once more, as well as those cleans again. But by god, the guttural vocals on here are fabulous. The ending on this should cause total carnage live, as should Tides. They mix their attack up on this one, not just relying on the lower end of the guitar to hammer their point home.

The latter tracks hit as well as that opening one-two, and Omen of Torture is just royal, full-on scream and drums that just don’t quit. This for me is as far from what I believe Deathcore to sound like, with an attack that puts a lot of bands to shame. Yes, there are cleans in there, but after that opening salvo I can forgive them. It is a monstrous track, a huge beast of a thing that just crushes all in front of it, and should be held up as a prime example of what extreme metal in the UK is all about. Reverie, with its cod-horror film background keys, is just the kind of song you want to close with. Taking what they have done successfully on those earlier tracks and wrapping that up in a ball of controlled fury that detonates fully.

This is an assured debut from them, one that as I said earlier has all of the energy of a band throwing themselves wholeheartedly into it. There are no half-measures, it is full on as you might expect from a band dropping their first full album and that they are rightly proud of. Fans of this genre, and of the bands below, should find this to be right up their street.