Vampire Wars
London, August, 2011 – In honour of their 20th year in exestence and as a thank you to fans old and new, Veil of Thorns is offerering "Vampire Wars", their latest release as a free download. This is not the first time the band has taken this route, which they did last with "Necrofuturist", their first release on the legendary Industrial music label Inner-X-Musick a year before its official release."I was in the mood to expend some energy, get sweaty and play guitar, and this is the result." said P. Emerson Williams, the vocalist, multi instrumentalist and founding member in his tumblr post announcing the release. "The lyrics were half stream of consciousness and half glossolalia, the beatle-bass was worked hard and put away wet and guitars bit back."
Diverging from the many-layered, genre-distending path of the last couple albums, "Vampire Wars" inhabits a world of punk noir with a level of immediacy and aggression that harkens back to the early days. There are still plenty of rusting hulks mouldering in the dystopian soundscape of this album, but the survivors are having a party in the ruins.
Says P. Emerson Williams on the topic of what Veil of Thorns' intention is: "Go grab the latest album “Vampire Wars” for free, spread it around, repost." and he continues, "If you write a few words about it or include trax in a podcast or radio show, please share a link with us and many blessings shall befall you and yours."
The band are not done sharing with "Vampire Wars". because this is their twentieth year, Veil of Thorns will be pointing to free Veil of Thorns downloads across the web on their Facebook page.
Tracklist:
NOISE COVERED WORSHIP
INCREASINGLY BIZARRE POLITICAL THREAT RITES
PROCESS PRODUCT PROPOSITION
DE LEGE MOTUS
CREATOR-GOVERNMENT-CREATOR
A CRAVEN SLAVE DESIGN
SACRED THOUGHT OBSTACLES
DISSOCIATIVE MODIFICATIONS
ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENA
GRAVE PECULIARITY RECEIVED
APPARITIONS OF ART
PROGRAMMERS BELOW SIGHTS OF THE OPERATIONAL SECRET
VAMPIRE WARS
A NON-EUCLIDEAN FUTURE
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| Salon Apocalypse CD $10.00 + S&H |
I know a lot of you were expecting a SLEEPCHAMBER release favorite releases. I did love each of them… with “Sorcery, Spells, & Serpent Charms” being my favorite. None-the-less… this is my top favorite releases. And not to sound even remotely self serving… I left them off. However, Veil Of Thorns newest CD could not be left off. Have you heard it? It’s a masterpiece from beginning to end. P. Emerson Williams is brilliant. He is a master musician whose ability to dive into the darkness – while remaining a musician, is unprecedented in our modern age. Where other artists like to rely on shocking lyrics, or cool effects… Williams writes good musick, and plays most of it himself – again “masterfully”. “Salon Apocalypse” is a aural drama played out for your ears. It weaves in and out of a apocalyptic story line that is just out of reach… The musick… ah, the musick. It’s out of reach to. Death Metal, ambient, noise, industrial, hip-hop, vocal…. it’s all there. Seamlessly. Think of it as a production. Perhaps a musical of the insane… but start to finish it’s complete brilliance. Pulling one track out makes no sense, as the release as a whole plays as a complete work. The musick is everywhere (gothick, metal, hip hop, ambient, everything), yet the release is incredibly cohesive. If you are interested in hearing bit’s and pieces then tune into Inner-X-Musick Radio… it should pop up some what frequently. -TheeBradMiller
Tracks:
Still Bloody Action
Sleep, Cut And Run
Intellectual Institutional Object
And The Beast Of The Vision Still Roams In Dreams
Sepulchral Reminder (Torment Rose)
Nearer To Hell (Ideological Corpses)
The Play Is The Thing
Nocturne
Infintude
Seduction
Widows Blacked Out
The Bell
Autonomous Anonymous Anomalous
The Thing Is In Play
Imagination Theives
Veiled Shadows Gaze
Soul Intervention
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| NECROFUTURIST CD $10.00 + S&H |
"NECROFUTURIST" by Veil Of Thorns is the second non /SLEEPCHAMBER release on the newly revamped Inner-X-Musick, the first being the outstanding "Medical Report" by Grammal Seizure. However, "NECROFUTURIST" is the first release that is being offered as a FREE DOWNLOAD before the physical release becomes available.
For those of you who keep track of this sort of thing.. it's catalog number is XXX 72.
If you are familiar with Veil Of Thorns this release may catch you off guard. It is, as I like to call it, "Neo Gothick", although truthfully - Veil Of Thorns has started their own genre with this recording, and one could easily call it "retro futurist". Veil Of Thorns sound has always been unique, but certainly Gothic. Williams abilities as a musician has always set Veil Of Thorns apart from your standard "goth rocker", but through the new millennium Williams has also become a master of the process as well. It has paid off. "NECROFUTURIST" was methodically prepared for and then assembled. Each piece of the puzzle placed with veteran precision.
As with any Veil Of Thorns release, there is an overriding theme to the release. According to Williams,
"There is a theme, but an as yet nebulous one. I'm pulling together phenomena and experiences connected with art movements of the last hundred years and the corresponding societal upheavals that ran concurrently and which had an enormous impact on the birth, life and death of those art movements."
"At the same time, I'm meditating on the similarities and interconnectedness of art and cultural groups and cults, magickal groups, religions, philosophical paradigm shifts and the growth they spur as well as the devastation they leave in their wake, both psychick and materially manifest."
"And there's a book I'm desperately looking for, don't know the name of it, but its effect on people who read it seems to have been similar to the fictional King in Yellow."
If you have been following recent developments with Inner-X-Musick - you would know that XXX 71 is already slated to be Veil Of Thorns "Salon Apocalypse". But this is a case of putting the cart before the horse. Williams explains "Necrofuturist continues the theme of Salon Apocalypse. TAZ in a warzone, flowers on a landmine, love & war. Time out of joint. it's therefore appropriate that this came together first."
There will be a physical release in the future. Probably sometime in the late fall, after the release of "Salon Apocalypse". Of course all the information will be posted here as it become available. See www.innerxmusick.com for all the goodies!
Tracks:
Thought Pollution Evolution
Through The Fire
Standing
The Vandals Exquisite Corpse
The Lifeless Trio Kept Playing
Wailing In Glass
Waltz
Pleasure In Nightmare
Giving Ascent
Dancing Revelation
Let Loose Into That Good Mourning
The Reflection
Deny Fascination
The Only One Left
Die As One
Entertainments Subsume Concern
Head Up Get Out
The Dead Channel
Cognitive Dissonance
Down-and-dirty, dark retro-futuristic music - Veil of Thorns cover Every Veil of Thorns song so far contain lyrics in the form of dreamlike fragments making one continuous tale. Cognitive Dissonance brings some of the underlying structure into focus. While they wove their tale they listened to the stories of others. In the spirit of our times they collected many apocalyptic tales. Ragnarok, Armageddon, the end of one life and the beginning of another forms one side of this archetypal narrative. Tales of the death of the ego, of the body, the breaking down of a belief offer a more insightful view.
Coming off collaborations with Gaia-conscious Industrial cabal subQtaneous and Norwegian post Blackmetal band Manes, Williams took the experience of working with such gifted and unique artists and has re-emerged with a stronger and darker vision. Lyrically encompassing two universes and two realities, this tight and spare album ends up being more expansive an experience than anything Veil of Thorns has released before.
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| Cognitive Dissonance CD $10.00 + S&H |
Cognitive Dissonance marked a return to the classic style of classic Veil of Thorns. People found they could dance to it, but it required having been trained by Martha Graham or Twyla Tharp. Online and college radio picked up some tracks, a couple put the entire album into rotation. As P. Emerson Williams has been putting the finishing touches on the kkoagulaa debut, "Aurum Nostrum Non Est Aurum Vulgi" he is well into the writing process for the next Veil of Thorns release.
"...pushes the envelope, shakes up the status quo, and demands attention." -Gothic Beauty
"This is their most stylish work, but some of the thorns have an extra edge." -Mick Mercer
"This is where Rozz Williams and Marilyn Manson merge in an Event Horizon singularity." -Corazine
"...they brew up a dust storm of tight-but-loose guitar riffs and driving, nervy, drums...half way between a lament and a threat." -Uncle Nemesis
Tracks:
Peripatetic
A Weirdness Less Expressed
The Enigmatic Rarely Atone
Fallacy Decides Initiative
Delusions of Excitement
Surgically Dream-Like
Languishing in the Rusting Valley
Corrode and Engulf
Night Access Hallucination
Anomalous Breaks
Cognitive Dissonance
CD - $10.00 + S&H
Tracks:This was out a few years ago but has now reappeared in a mini-slew of recent releases, highlighting the more accessible area of their shady swamplike sound, for when not disturbing Veil Of Thorns can always offer the generally disturbed.
‘Reproach (Full Of Hope)’ is essentially groaning rock pulling at its own restraints, stretchy, floaty and melodic to the point of being sensitive.
‘My Inner Sanctum’ gets the bovine bass swinging, and with a nimble rhythm and delicate vocals it’s positively catchy in its ghostly silkiness.
‘Exaltation In Ascendancy’ is a slurry or agitated, urgent muted mutant rock and ‘Worship Of Disclosure’ consistently devious in its dipping rhythmical demeanour, with the vocals unusually sparse and lilting. Furtive, light guitar scurries beautifully in the hydraulic ‘Manifestation Objective’ which always threatens to go into freefall.
‘Draw In, Wind Down’ is a dyed-in-the-wool dying dawdle, ‘Dream Shadow’ preferring a blipverting Goth-psyche tangle, agony and ecstasy kicked under the table and left to fight it out. ‘Can’t Stop Laughing (The Beauty Of Drowning)’ gets to its knees threatening to be ‘Goldfinger’ but soon starts to snake around having a gloomy seizure but some spectacularly tingly guitar hauls it up by pointy bootstraps. ‘Undergrowth Silent With Want.’ works as an inflated sort of drone and by the time it’s finished you’re stuck in its addled groove, and the petite circles creating ‘Fated, Cascading, Submerged’ also snag you easily, being a thin veneer of a psychedelia, smeared with rock sighs. Then ‘Extend Inward, Breathe Out’ bewilders, crashing in like an alternate Portishead ending, but slowly disintegrating into ‘The Gathering World Withdrew Its Fury’ which lumbers off bleary, slowly, sore of head and heavy of heart,
Plenty here. -Mick Mercer
Reproach (Full of Hope)
My Inner Sanctum
Exaltation in Ascendancy
Worship of Disclosure
Manifestation Objective
Draw In, Wind Down
Dream Shadow
Can€™t stop Laughing (The Beauty of Drowning)
Extend Inward, Breathe Out
Undergrowth Silent with Want
Fated, Cascading; Submerged
The Gathering World Withdrew Its Fury
Birthed
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| Birthed CD $10.00 + S&H |
Review by: Kristofer Upjohn, www.chaindlk.com
Tracks:
Starry Skies
Falling to Earth
Raining Down
BLEEDINGACIDCASUALTY
Enshroud
Sanctify
Faith
Souls
In Your Goodness
Birthed
We Are
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| Cafe Flesh CD $10.00 +S&H |
Having played this material extensively in clubs, the performances were the most solid to date. New songs like “Demons Play”, She and Mine show Veil of Thorns as a versatile, powerful but graceful machine.
Lineup:
P. Emerson Williams - Guitar, Vocals, bass, keyboards
Chris McClain - bass, keyboards, programming
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Tracks:
Thelema
Lust Beyond Flesh
Demons Play
Nothing Is Real
Bring the End
Stillness
Silence (A Fable) 98
She
Fortært
Mine
Legemet og Stemmen
Live: on Bats in the Belfry 1994
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| Live: on Bats in the Belfry 1994 CD $10.00 + S&H |
Lineup:
P. Emerson Williams - Vocals, Guitar, Cello
Christopher McClain - Bass, Guitar
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Tracks:
Lust Beyond Flesh
Dream Shadow
Legemet og Stemmen
My Inner Sanctum
Forever Longing
Utopia & Interview
Sourced from a reference tape recorded at the station. Some glitches and noise were minimized to the extent possible.
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| Lust Beyond Flesh b/w Utopia 7" EP $10.00 + S&H |
Lust Beyond Flesh 7" EP
Tracks:
Lust Beyond Flesh
Utopia
We figured a new remaster needed a new cover, and this captures the mood at the time of recording. Silence (A Fable), the opening track came together quickly. I had brought my new cello home and found a notice that Bright Green Records were seeking artists for the Dream Within A Dream compilation, tracks dedicated to and inspired by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. I had to give it a go, for Poe has been a major inspiration for me since I was very young. I was also psyched to try out the cello, an instrument I had never played before. A half hour after getting through the door the track was written, and in the next hour it was recorded and mixed down, with the master packed and addressed to be sent out. It was the concluding track on a very cool, diverse and dark compilation and was the first time Veil of Thorns music was on CD.
Last on the Dream Within A Dream compilation and the opening track on Legemet og Stemmen, which was the third early cassette release. What you can hear below was digitally remastered from the original master tape. This release shows a transition period between the first and second lineups with me playing every instrument. There is more emphasis on keyboards, more sonic experimentation in the electronic percussion and my first raw cello and violin parts.
P. Emerson Williams - Guitar, Vocals, bass, keyboards
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Legemet Og Stemmen
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| Legemet Og Stemmen CD $10.00 + S&H |
Last on the Dream Within A Dream compilation and the opening track on Legemet og Stemmen, which was the third early cassette release. What you can hear below was digitally remastered from the original master tape. This release shows a transition period between the first and second lineups with me playing every instrument. There is more emphasis on keyboards, more sonic experimentation in the electronic percussion and my first raw cello and violin parts.
Veil of Thorns-LEGEMET og STEMMENLineup:
Excellent gothic music. Quite ghoulish vocals, good production, weird and somewhat majestic. Just check it out to see what I mean.
666
Review - Lucifera - Endemoniada Magazine
P. Emerson Williams - Guitar, Vocals, bass, keyboards
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Check it below:
Dead God
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| Dead God CD $10.00 + S&H |
Few people heard The End of the Beginning this at the time and none heard The Dead God Sessions outside the inner circle and Tiziana from Misanthropy Records. Raw recordings from rehearsal and pre production demos for the debut Veil of Thorns album in 1995. The Dead God Sessions tracks were recorded live in a single take in most cases, using two mikes, placed at either end of a 30’x30’ rehearsal room in Boston. The analog recording was extremely hot, so little compression or noise reduction was done.
Already the vocals were less operatic, and there is even a hint of pop songwriting, something that was not to be revisited until much later on Birthed.
-P. Emerson Williams
Have a listen:
The Dead God Sessions
Raw recordings from rehearsal and pre production demos for the debut Veil of Thorns album in 1995. These recordings are different from the ones that made their way to the Cafe Flesh album, and some have not been heard, except played live at concerts.These tracks were recorded live in a single take in most cases, using two mikes, placed at either end of a 30’x30’ rehearsal room in Boston. The analog recording was extremely hot, so little compression or noise reduction was done.
Tracks:
Thelema
Nothing Is Real
Silence (A Fable)
Stillness
Legemet og Stemmen
Bring the End
Mine
Dead God
Sinking
Demons Play
Daath
Rain
The End of the Beginning
Few people heard this at the time. Within days of the conclusion of the recording sessions, Jarrett was gone and Cathy was on her way to New York with the two previous masters, all Veil of Thorns related artwork and a few rough demos in her bags. Christopher (Dogface) McClain was to step in and Veil of Thorns would start showing a new focus.Already the vocals were less operatic, and there is even a hint of pop songwriting, something that was not to be revisited until much later on Birthed.
Lineup:
P. Emerson Williams - Guitar, Vocals
Jarrett Laitinen - Guitar
Catherine Chenoweth - Bass
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Live: Halloween WMFO 1992
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| Live: Halloween WMFO 1992 $10.00 + S&H |
Veil of Thorns radio appearance a stormy night, Halloween, 1992 on Tufts college free-form radio. This was the second time the band played live on Bazooka Joe’s WMFO radio show. On second guitar the band borrowed Dave, the guitarist from Chuck.
This is the lineup:
P. Emerson Williams - Vocals,
guitar Dave (From the Boston funk rock band Chuck) - Guitar
Catherine Chenoweth - Bass
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Sourced from a reference tape recorded at the station. Some glitches and noise were minimized to the extent possible
Tracks:
Obsession
Possession
Utopia
Void
The End of the Beginning
Sanctify (Drowning)
Souls In Flight
Live: WMFO 1991
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| Live: WMFO 1991 $10.00 + S&H |
This is the original lineup:
P. Emerson Williams - Vocals, guitar
Jarrett Laitinen - Guitar
Catherine Chenoweth - Bass
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Tracks:
Obsession
Left Behind
Flames Caress
She (Poison Dance)
Awakening
Dead God (Healing Dance)
Back To the Sun
The End of the Beginning
First Dissolution
Study In Decay
Lineup:P. Emerson Williams - Guitar, Vocals
Jarrett Laitinen - Guitar
Catherine Chenoweth - Bass
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Tracks:
Study In Decay
You'll Never Know
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| Debut CD $10.00 + S&H |
The noise of other bands can be heard at quiet moments.
Lineup:
P. Emerson Williams - Guitar, Vocals
Jarrett Laitinen - Guitar
Catherine Chenoweth - Bass
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Tracks:
Void
Utopia
Tear the Cities Down
Sanctify (Drowning)
No Claim
Dreamshadow (Falling)
Re-Creating Space-Time
Crimson Smile
Nod
