Daemonic: The Art of Dantalian

This album is quite enjoyable in the right mood.

Daemonic: The Art of Dantalian. Where to begin? The album crafts an already dark and brooding presence with the fun, slightly amusing cover art, if not just hearing the name of the collection of songs. Veld is an interesting entity concerning my vapid history with them. It's been around three years since I first listened to anything by this fairly underground band. Daemonic was the first album, and I haven't yet caught up with the previous release, nor do I admittedly have much intention to do so.

Let's get into the meat of things. Daemonic starts off with an eerie opener not short of a few video game and movie cinematics yet isn't inherently cringe-inducing like some. It's short and to the point, fulfilling a basic existence as an opener. The first true song is the heavy and bombarding "World In Obscure", a track with no pause. The whole album has this feeling of a creeping, or in contrast, an incredibly aggressive atmosphere. There are points where this gets dumbed-down, but my bet is on the synths as they are ever-present in some songs.

None the less, Veld has made almost every track full of aggression, which I admire for the sheer overwhelming nature. Songs like "World In Obscure" and almost all other songs contain the atmospheric background mentioned earlier, with high focus on not leaving the armor empty underneath, figuratively speaking. Once the body is exposed after peeling back the plating, Daemonic is filled to the skin with background effects and synths trying to mimic suffering or pained souls. It does this well enough, but it does sometimes feel overdone in certain tracks.

Finally, I get to the guitars, and they are VERY bright. I like the tone, but I'm held back by the near sole focus on having the strings be mixed so sharp and thin. The bass is actually quite forgettable, and at times you could have never thought they used the bass. This is most likely due to how overwhelming the rest of the instruments are compared to the far weaker bass parts. Does this kill the album? No, far from lethal, just typical of other average bands.

The drumming is a furious endeavor, with almost never letting go of the punishing attitude that it developed in the first song. I have certain gripes with the mixing as it sounds thinner and less vibrant than I would've liked, personally.

The vocals are in spirit fun and hyper aggressive, but they are completely underwhelming if taken out of the landscape of music here. They sound quite processed, but I'm not a person too knowledgeable on that topic, so I could be wrong.

Speaking of vocals, Veld indulged in some quite cheesy, but in essence humorous spoken-word parts in various songs. They are funny to hear on occasion in a contrast to the brutal audio pounding we're receiving. I think a different style of effects-driven speaking could've fit better, although it's tough deciding on what to use instead.

The album has one instrumental, which is neither good nor bad, just plain bland. The instrumental was possibly placed there to enhance the runtime, but it's foolish to automatically default to this assumption. It's an ironically laidback track, with the guitars and drums feeling less inclined to ravage your body. Even the bass becoming less of a presence than you could have thought achievable.

The very last track is the best on the album, and a song I've replayed more independently than the rest. It's composed of the same punishing riffs and blast beats, but with a refreshing break around two minutes and forty seconds. The change is a slowed rush and added female vocals that sound delightfully malicious, if not entirely morbid. This returns twice in the track, then the album finishes in a fade-out.

Overall, this was an informing experience. One to call on my interest for the future of Veld. You can avoid this train or ride it, it is not something you should be ashamed of missing.

My favorite songs on the release:

- "World In Obscure"
- "Endless Spiritual Paranoia"
- "Annihilation of Divinity (Trust Upon Ignorance)"

My disliked tracks:

- In Eternal Waiting (Instrumental)

Veld has been around for quite a while now, Daemonic: Art of Dantalian is their fourth album. They play a style rooted in Polish blackened death metal with forays into tech/brutal death subsets.

The album starts off with an eerie ambient/instrumental track that builds towards a tension building percussion. The second track does a little intro of it's own with a menacing riff before blasting away relentlessly. The drums are triggered and sound high in the mix. The vocals hit like a proverbial sledgehammer to face, the dude sounds like a more pissed off, faster Nergal but I have a sinking feeling that the growls have been over-layered and tempered with. The next two tracks also aim to pummel the listener with blastbeats. A careful listen also unearths subtle samples and atmospheric 'touches'. They aim to spice up the proceedings but are little more than mild distractions. This initial exhausting assault on the senses is alleviated by an acoustic instrumental.

After this fairly uneventful track we head towards the second half of the album. Though the blasts are present, these tracks primarily focus moreso on chugging and constructing catchy & groovy rhythms. A few moments tend to get slammy here too. Then before the finale we are presented an industrially-flavored mid-tempo track. It lingers on and on before culminating into an impressive solo which is sadly muddled by the perpetual bass drums. Then the 8 minute epic busts in with an aggressive keyboard interlude and then proceeds to twist and turn switching between crushing blasting and soft, dainty female vocals.

Despite playing a saturated style there is reasonable variety on display here. These dudes will bring to mind more accomplished names in the death scene but still they have a moderately unique sound which manages to hold it's own.

The handling of vocal/atmospheric samples could have been implemented more tastefully (seriously, what is up with that weird, cheesy, pseudo-narrative mumbling?). Also the record, in my opinion, is a little heavy on the blasting aspect. Despite some cool riffage, certain guitar parts came across rather uninspired. All things considered Daemonic: Art of Dantalian is a solid slab of blackened death with subtle brutal/tech death elements creeping in for added variety.

Recommended to fans of mid-career Behemoth, Hate, Hours of Penance, Nile etc.