Band:	Cryopsis
Album:	Veils Of Psychotic Chaos SE
Style:	Progressive death metal
Release date:	August 26, 2010
A review by:	Thryce

01. Prelude To Chaos
02. The Wall Of Dreams
03. Ursae Oris
04. Liquid Shadows Of Immaterial Reality
05. The Pool Of Putrescence
06. A Living Cage
07. Illusion Of Light
08. Crystallized Enucleation
09. %^)à-è'éçà
10. The Blood Fountain
11. Textures
12. Time Is Dying
13. Renaissance [bonus]
14. Life Machina [bonus]
15. Behind The Mirror [bonus]
16. Ephemeral [bonus]

Extreme Progressive metal
Recorded: Cryopsis Studios, France 2009
Unsigned/Self-released
Total Running Time: 1:01:48


Veils Of Psychotic Chaos SE is, uh, something else.

Cryopsis is a one-man project hailing from the underground of France, led by some dude who calls himself "The Entity". But because this guy seemingly has more musical vision in his nostril hairs than most people have in their entire being, he gets away with that nickname as far as I'm concerned. Veils Of Psychotic Chaos SE is actually a remastered version of his 2003 debut effort, plus his previously unreleased Perception Of Light mini-LP plus a bonus track. What we're really talking here is a concept sort of album built around the thrashy death kind of metal, but with an edge... by which I mean the music is fairly experimental and/or progressive and/or whatever the fuck else you want to call it.

Unsurprisingly, this album isn't the easiest thing to get your hand around. The tempo lines change quite frequently and the level of accessibility is by times excruciatingly low. Apart from being spiced up with harsh vocals and being drenched in keyboard tunes (of which I'm not a big fan), the music itself is actually soaked in atmospheric hiccups, trillions of other assorted sound effects and even more out of the bleu interludes that are supposed to give the album a melodic vibe. Pretty soon though, the record turns into an emotionless apocalyptic minefield where everything starts sounding the same after a while.

The drawback of such albums is that it takes a huge amount of time and several repeated listens to let the music fully sink in, only to conclude you don't even have half a clue of what the hell is going on exactly. So there's no point in describing in graphic detail how the album is pretty much indescribable. This is one you really need to hear yourself. It won't harm you. And who knows, some of you might even like it.