Echoes of Winter

Veil of Conspiracy

The Italian band VEIL OF CONSPIRACY - known for a particular genre called Melancholic Metal […]
By Mark Machlay
September 1, 2021
Veil of Conspiracy - Echoes of Winter album cover

The Italian band VEIL OF CONSPIRACY - known for a particular genre called Melancholic Metal - has released their second full-length album titled "Echoes of Winter" via Bad Moon Music just this past Friday August 27th. The band was formed in 2016 and has gone through many different musical phases to reach a more mature and defined sound by the time they were ready to release their first full-length "Me, Us, and Them" in 2019, which propelled them to the top of the list of important bands of the progressive metal genre. The "Melancholic Metal" genre they play in is characterized by heavy melodies, oppressive and languid atmosphere, reminiscent of bands like KATATONIA, OPETH, NEVERMORE and SOEN. They represent a unique musical entity within the Italian metal scene, merging the Nordic power of distorted guitars with a special attention to the melody, elegance, and progression while taking great care to craft meaningful and poignant lyrics to go along with such crafted music.

Now, just two years after releasing their debut, VEIL OF CONSPIRACY have used this time off from live shows wisely to come back after a year of being couped up inside to release their second album "Echoes of Winter", an amalgam of doom, death and black metal with just the right tinge of progressive tendencies to push these genres a little further. Their second album, however, is more characterized by the use of alternating screams and melodic clean vocals and a more present appearance of clean guitars in the mix. The band all got together in their own studio to record their parts and handed off the parts to Stefano Morabito and his 16th Cellar based in Rome to be mixed and mastered. The band has also left Revalve Records and the record is instead being released by Bad Moon Music in partnership with Solitude Productions. The album is a love letter to nature - walking in it, being surrounded in it, etc. - and with the band being particularly appreciative of winter, decided to dedicate their record to it.

While throughout "Echoes of Winter", VEIL OF CONSPIRACY morphs through many moods and styles, opening track "Woods of Nevermore" prepares the listener with quite the apropos introduction to an extreme metal album with an epic scream. It doesn't stop there and features some black metal screams among a wash of heavy droning guitars before featuring some almost tender, soft, clean vocals juxtaposing the harsh ones and a truly speed metal worthy guitar solo. Then "Grim Light" is very OPETH featuring the softer, brooding vocals but instead of death metal growls, it's black metal screams and some creepy, clean guitar arpeggios. Overall it's more doom metal than any other style though, with a bleakness that usually only achieved with a Nordic metal band. It's very much an atmospheric album, despite all the genre infusions and really illustrates the coming of winter in a bleak, "wall of sound" kind of way. I found myself getting lost as if buried in snow, but thankfully I won't get frostbite from the "blanket of snow" kind of sound from this group. They're not really pushing too many boundaries, but do seem to continue a trend of atmospheric, black metal infused doom metal, a mixture of OPETH, SOEN and Sunn O))) with enough black metal qualities without terrible production.

8 / 10

Excellent

Songwriting

8

Musicianship

9

Memorability

8

Production

7
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"Echoes of Winter" Track-listing:

1. Echoes of Winter
2. Grim Light
3. The Darkest Fall
4. Ocean's Tide
5. At the Edge of Dark
6. Cold
7. Shore of Discord
8. Forsaken
9. Svart
10. Where Sun Turns to Grey

Veil of Conspiracy Lineup:

Davide Fabrizio - Drum
Emanuela Marino - Guitars
Luca Gagnoni - Guitars
Cristian Marchese - Bass
Alessandro Sforza - Vocals

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