Veil of Maya - False Idol

One of modern progressive metal’s and djent’s biggest movers took a bit of a preventable stumble in 2015 with the cheap Periphery/Meshuggah mimicry of Matriarch, and fans were quick to denounce new vocalist Lukas Magyar’s introduction of clean vocals to Veil of Maya’s sound. While much more comfortable on this record with the blend of vocal styles (the cleaner of which are still clearly an attempt at Spencer Sotello’s style, especially noticeable on “Overthrow”), the band sound more unoriginal than ever, which in itself is not a problem. The problem is that they’re clearly trying to sound like they’re caught up with and alongside one particular contemporary of theirs (Periphery) to the point of the masquerade being entirely pointless. While the clean vocal style is the most prominent aspect of this copycatting, even the guitar riffs closing up “Doublespeak” and sandwiching “Whistleblower” sound so unabashedly Misha-esque that it’s hard to excuse. Periphery don’t hold a monopoly on their style, but False Idol sounds so much more like a cheap imitation than a band trying to add their own signature flair to the style, which is fine, Veil of Maya are not obligated to proceed that way, and plenty of great music has come from emulating an inspiring artist closely. The album doesn’t sound terrible at all, it’s well produced, well performed, and it’s not as frantic of a mess as some of their earlier work has been. For me, I just can’t listen to this without getting distracted thinking about it practically being Periphery. Hey, I can’t listen to Periphery’s “Extraneous” without thinking about how clearly it’s trying to match Meshuggah, and I still enjoy it.

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