GOTHRONOMICON

Ah, yes, what may be the most pop and beat-driven Veil of Thorns album yet created and we go name it GOTHRONOMICON... Well, a mysterious stranger showed up at the gates of the massive Veil of Thorns estate with a most curious manuscript of a most disturbing and harrowing codex and we were impelled to come to terms with its arcane secrets. This was certainly one of the most rewarding recoding sessions, with contributions from two of the finest and most talented people one could ever hope to find.

Veil of Thorns - GOTHRONOMICON CD
$12.00 + S&H

The dreaded GOTHRONOMICON has been brought to us and is being translated by mute scribes and the content held therein tested by fearless and skilled mages, though a few have been lost between space...

We have a tip on where to find the gothrapocrypha and some info on what it will take to obtain it. We hope to get this process on film.

Of his madness many things are told. I, P. Emerson Williams, Ferenc Teglas and Aidan McGoran marauded mythic R'lly'yeh, or City of Pillocks, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race of atomic supermen older than humankind. They were only different Gothramaritans, worshipping unknown entities whom they called flogsogoth and necro cryptu.  

As i stood here below, methought their eyes were four full moons: Ferenc Teglas and Aidan McGoran had a thousand noses; horns whelked and wavèd like the enridgèd sea: they were a pair of fiends. And I summoned again to stand before me Ferenc Teglas and Aidan McGoran, the burning idols of demons, and I sat them down on raised seats of honour, and said to them: "why art thou agog, Emperor ov Sonic Electronic Golems and Supreme Overlord ov Git-Fiddles of the necrofuturist veil of thorns?" and they said unto me: "because we alone are the great serpents that came down. for i was first angel in the first heaven" said one, being entitled Ferenczebub. "and I now control all who are bound in the GOTHRONOMICON being titled Aidancifer" said t'other. . .  

P. Emerson Williams
Head Necrofuturist,
Veil of Thorns
2012ev

Credits:

P. Emerson Williams - Vox, Bass, Cello, 12 String Guitar, Slide Guitar, Analog Synth
Ferenc Teglas - Synth, Piano, Digital Armatures
Aidan McGoran - Guitars
Ruddy Bitch - Drums
Pandora - Drums

GOTHRONOMICON I - Pencil Drawing 2012 P. Emerson Williams

Also, buy the GOTHRONOMICON Original Pencil Drawing and you get a GOTHRONOMICON CD and an immediate download of the digital album.

The P. Emerson Williams original drawing from which the cover art for the GOTHRONOMICON album was created. Pencil on acid free paper 8 5/18"x8 5/8" (Note - images 2-5 are details of the full drawing, not separate pieces.) More art for the first of the GOTHRONOMICON books and GOTHRAPOCRYPHA series is currently being retrieved from the space between space.

About thee artist:
In his last years, Williams dwelt in Damask silk, where the Gothronomicon (O Az-If) was written. 

In art, in the Dictionnaire Infernal, P. Emerson Williams is depicted as a crude man with dragon-like wings, hands and feet, a second pair of feathered wings after the main, wearing a crown, holding a serpent in one hand, and riding a wolf or hog. 

The "good" P. Emerson in recent use is largely a literary device (e.g., Maxwell's P. Emerson), though references to good P. Emersons can be found in Hesiod and Shakespeare. In common language, to "P. Emersonize" a person means to characterize or portray them as evil, or as the source of evil.

The Girl Without A Face Pencil Drawing - P. Emerson Williams 2012

Also available is The Girl Without A Face Drawing + GOTHRONOMICON CD and digital album download.

The Girl Without A Face Original Pencil Drawing + CD
The P. Emerson Williams original drawing from which the cover art for the Girl Without A Face EP was created.

Pencil on acid free paper 6"x9" (Note - images 2-5 are details of the full drawing, not separate pieces.)

P. Emerson Williams In Apocalyptic Imaginary: Early Edition

Pieces that ran on ModernMythology.net are gathered, edited and expanded in this special collection. This endeavour is one of the projects the fund raising campaign helped bring to life, and is just the beginning of what is to be brought to you in the coming year. Some of this will include the music of Veil of Thorns. Here are a couple examples from the book from me, your humble Veil of Thorns overlord:

Modernism to Postmodernism to Postmortemism

By P. Emerson Williams

We cultural types do love to declare death wherever we cast our jaded blood-shot eyes. When our imaginations are exhausted, hard-ons for the latest arising only with greater efforts require new extremes of fetishism. A point comes when completed work crowds out attention. Art, empire, economy, politics look to us to be sated with days and ready to give in to sweet oblivion.

Lady Gaga killed sex, says the once much discussed Camille Paglia, who quotes her subject who declaims “Music is a lie”, “Art is a lie”, “Gaga is a lie”. The death of the novel is an idea so oft repeated that one can envision members of the literary establishment daring each other to intone the phrase three times in front of a mirror in expectation of the candyman to appear. And closer to home for us here, the right honourable psychonaut James L. Kent writing for Acceler8or the new transhumanist vehicle established by R. U. Sirius says we've come to rest after years of the deceler8ing of music as a living mode of expression. Nice opening shot.

Read on at Modern Mythology. 




Human Demonology: Salome

By P. Emerson Williams

And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.  

And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.- (Mark 6:21-29, KJV)  

The story of Salome is a familiar one in Western culture, the climax of wich with her lascivious dance and the severed head of John the Baptist has fired the imagination of artists, writers and composers for hundreds of years. Then there's Dracula as an allegory describing Victorian men's fear of female sexuality, Lilith in legend and art... The mythical Salome can be seen as both a product of and a window into the minds of those who told it. Salome was a real historical person, born EV 14, the daughter of Herodias and the stepdaughter of the Emperor Herod Antipas. Though she is unnamed in the New Testament, Salome is named in the writings of the historian Josephus.

Read the rest of the article at Modern Mythology.




This book captures and expands upon the unique commentary and analysis that has helped define the Modern Mythology project in 2011. Through the voices of many contributors, we collectively take a hard look at the blurred lines between narrative and truth, philosophy and literature, personal history and cultural memory. All of this is done with an eye towards the imagined apocalypse that is always just around the corner.

This is the $.99 early edition, meaning that there will be one more editorial pass before the final version which will be released in print. This contains all the final content that the final book has, but will almost certainly have minor typos. If they light your hair on fire, feel free to report them.

Available as PDF, .epub, Kindle and more on Smashwords. (Just $.99)

First edition in print and kindle formats Jan 2012.

Click here to read a sample.

Crowdsourcing the Mythosphere - Modern Mythology - let's Each MAke Our Own Damn Kvlt!

Modern Mythology Are in the Midst of a Year-End Fundraiser

Modern Mythology grew out of Mythos Media, which released the Veil of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance album back in 2007. Well, the scope of what we do has grown and so has the cost of operating and expanding.

Observant readers may have noticed me mentioning this before. Right now I’m in the process of tweeting every one of the 300+ articles that have run on modernmythology.net in 2011. Think of how much work writing that many articles entails, and then consider that there were three books published already this year, and an anthology on its way. Then there’s the music, the web video series, the podcasts and much more.

Now, put yourselves under the influence of our Mind Kontrol with this video mixtape:

Here is what some of those who have contributed to our fundraiser campaign have said about this project:

“Modern Mythology’s work is way too important to not support. We need this discourse. Rock on guys!” 

“You’re doing good work; I’m proud to support that.” 

“Myth is something that even our technological, interdependent and global society cannot escape. Myth can illuminate and unveil aspects about ourselves and where we are going, where we have come from. Myth, in short, is self-knowing. As an essential dimension of human experience, it would behoove us to try to contextualize myth—or more appropriately see how myth contextualizes—the modern age.” 

“You rock so hard, rocks are jello in your very presence. Neutron stars are tied neck and neck in the races. Your stuph is dense, and heavy. Keep it up. Way up.”

9 days left! We are presently running an ongoing tweet-a-thon under #myth on twitter. Listen in or join the discussion.

Even a donation of $1 gets you a free eBook and helps to keep us going.

[Check out some of the books, albums, and soon movies produced by Mythos Media and our various media partners.]

P. Emerson Williams - James Curcio on subQtaneous

Small WORLD Podcast


Described as a "stick of dynamite strapped to reality," (Scenery Zine), subQtaneous is a diverse conceptual, collaborative album. It carves new soundscapes ranging from brutal, pounding industrial to sarcastic hip hop set over carnival music to delicately layered trance. It has been compared to Pigface, probably due to its format, as well as Coil, Mr Bungle, the Tapeworm project, and Frank Zappa.

Interview with James Curcio and P. Emerson Williams of subQtaneous

Download File - 44.0 MB
Listen To This Podcast (Streaming Audio)

Mick Mercer Reviews Cognitive Dissonance

Mick Mercer Reviews Cognitive Dissonance

I have to say I'm aglow from reading this one. One sends out ones creations to be reviewed and what comes back is usually expected. Sometimes what is written is surprising, sometimes completely off the wall, to the point that you want to check and make sure you sent the right CD. But when it's understood, whether the review is positive or not, that's one of the greatest rewards. 



VEIL OF THORNS
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Mythos Media

Although working at another end of the noisy bastard spectrum to History Of Guns, Veil Of Thorns, and other P. Emerson Williams projects, provide the same alternative. Just when you have become used to experiencing your guitar stimulants, your ethereal relaxants, your electronic placebo, along comes Doctor Thorns, like a knight in deliberately ill-fitting armour and bellows ‘No more!’ causing all patients to fall from their beds. Where a lot of old-school Industrialists make deliberately obscure, ugly amateurish trash and new Industrialists churn out whatever club-friendly sounds they hope will land them a big record deal, there are some artists wading sternly through the same muddy waters with more artistic sensibilities. Veil Of Thorns may make threatening music but it is not without gentler asides, and often presents itself in alluring form. This is their most stylish work, but some of the thorns have an extra edge.

It’s really just down to P. Emerson Williams on virtually everything but the live drums of James Curcio, whose alarming novel I am currently reading. That’s the thing – music and other genuine influences, with P. himself a very talented artist, as I am sure many of you realise. It infuses what might be a trudging sound and throws light into murky corners. ‘Peripatetic’ has a dark rhythmical flow below a bright needling guitar and the drums stay furtive, the vocals commendably aghast, the song briskly cantering into action. It is actually hard to follow the vocal narrative but maybe that’s a good thing? ‘A Weirdness Less Expressed’ is great. If ever robots develop their own Thrash genre with a glaring sheen and viciously seedy bass pulses they will point to this song as a formative spark; more keenly urgent vocals and liquid guitar unusually catchy at times.

‘The Enigmatic Rarely Atone’ is slippier, as guitar slides away from the gleaming, undulating core. ‘Fallacy Decides Initiative’ lurches off after the seamless intro into a sighing, tumbling exercise, but ‘Delusions Of Excitement’ has low key, sweeter sounds and a dignified comeliness, deeper slopes and a playful atmospheric element. ‘Surgically Dream Like’ does what it says on the bloodbag, the cello providing a blurred setting, as though orchestral ocean liners were calling to one another, Industrial whale song!

‘Languishing In The Rusting Valley’ is not the worse holiday brochure ever, but a fractious combination of tingling guitar and grating rhythm in a plainly enjoyably melodic cacophony, as pert as the ungainly ever get. ‘Corrode And Engulf’ is deep growliness, like an ambient intestinal voyage. ‘Night Access Hallucination’ is a weird entity, being spindly, addled art-rock, with a touch of the Frank Zapata about it, with ‘Anomalous Breaks’; fun, not fearful. Austere, like monks hungover on mescaline, and then the title track itself sends you home with a cold bowl of sonic porridge.

They’re one of the few creative outlets for these more tangled sounds, and this gets the thumbs up, being a fine record, and one which some people might find easier to get into than earlier works as it’s got elements you’d recognise. Okay, you may develop extra thumbs with prolonged exposure, but what is life without risks?

http://www.veilofthorns.com
http://www.myspace.com/veilofthorns
http://joinmycult.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/choronzon333

Gothis Beauty Reviews Veil of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance

The latest issue of Gothic Beauty is on the racks, choc a block with reviews, interviews and some great articles and photos you'll wanna check out. Their reviewer had some kind things to say about the latest Veil of Thorns album:

Veil of Thorns

Cognitive Dissonance

Mythos Media

Veil of Thorns is an edgy, eclectic blend of electronica and metal. It reminds me of early Bowie in that it pushes the envelope, shakes up the status quo, and demands attention. We're entering a new world of music indeed - one that's refreshingly different. the Cognitive Dissonance title track is ominous, like free-falling into a dark abyss. "Peripatetic" pushes us over the edge of insanity. "A Weirdness Less Expressed" can only be described as enigmatic or avant-garde. The instrumental "Surgically Dream Like" feels like anesthetic wearing off while you're on the operating table - terrifying! (Athena) - Gothic Beauty

This fall will see "Salon Apocalypse", which looks to push things a bit further.

Side-Line Reviews Veil of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance

The following reviewer at Side-Line was looking for familiar grooves and hooks in Cognitive Dissonance and found out that they reveal themselves over time. The only thing I want to clarify is that the instrumentation of this album is guit-bass-drums-vox except for three solo cello pieces and one cello-vio-lin-drums-vox piece. No electronic elements are present.

Veil Of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance (cd Mythos Media)

Posted on 22 Oct, 2007 - Bookmark at del.icio.us
VOT brings a mix of guitar parts and electronic arrangements. From the debut song till the last one this band brings a quite chaotic sound. It all sound like the songs are loosing their power in a dense sonic fog. I’m missing carrying parts and a kind of melody in the choruses. The only song that really caught my attention is probably the less representative ones from the album. The instrumental “Surgically dream like” is a quiet song that would fit as soundtrack. It’s a bit psychedelic as well, revealing another side of the band, which remains rather hidden for so far. An album with different ingredients and ideas, but too chaotic and less coherent in the end! www.mythosmedia.net (DP:4)DP.

Cognitive Dissonance Transmission IV

This
represents the final chapter and transmission of the Cognitive
Dissonance process. I thought I'd share a few bits of what I've been
working on lately, between things I'm bound by blood oaths not to
talk about, extensive research into rhizomatic consciousness, chaos
theory, extreme esoteric number manipulation and viral linguistics. A
ton of creative output had been gathering momentum, and dissemination
has been an afterthought, though I came to see that aspect becoming
part of the creative flow. Further dissection of the sounds. In
keeping with the original intent, I'm going to limit the final
production notes to a bare outline of the process that got us here
and convey gratitude to those of you who followed and added to the
conversation.

The
first thought I had at the outset was to track a simple album with a
classic trio sound. I've done well with that, except for the added
melody line at the beginning of the first track. Then a few stray
ideas took root and grew into strange mutant entities. Major revamps,
rethinks and re-visions, then sounds, images and artifacts suggested
ever more forms and eventually, narrative, albeit os the surreal
sort. With the album itself I took a very direct and raw approach.
I've always preferred the sound of a human being playing instruments
and singing to the mad scientists creation that is the protools
version of injection molded plastic. (Not to be confused with
electronic music.) Vocalists don't usually like to have anyone hear
anything but the most spot on, confident performances, but I was
going for a feeling and a story, and these are my sketches.

Cognitive Dissonance was a working title that became the final title,
for the name fed the blossoming idea that tied the album together. A
story that encompassed a vision split in four directions, a
juxtaposition and melding together of the points of view of of same
world/ two views, two worlds, same character observing and acting in
them. The central idea is of a cognitive dissonance between first
appearances and a closer look.

I
recorded all the music, and then came up with the song titles. I
decided the order according to how the titles felt. Then I wrote a
short story starting from a cutup of the titles. I expanded that and
took the lyrics from that. I think my machines feaked out and became
possessed in the process. I had some radio signals coming through the
guitar as I laid down the tracks, and I made liberal use of them.
While I continued to track the album I released several
transmissions. I thought I'd make the various stage escapes into
their own entities, as opposed to a few stray mp3's.

Unlike
the album itself, I layered, layered the layers and added extra
layers to boot. I tried something different in the first, and with
the help of the fine folks at librivox.org, I added spoken word from
readings of public domain classics. We're hearing mostly Flaubert,
Coleridge and Emily Dickinson.

Transmision
II I made from the bass tracks from the album. Mostly you're hearing
one track of bass with no layers but the real-time FX, though there
are a couple points where the cello creeps in. A few inexplicable
voices emerged that weren't recorded by me. If it fits as a
soundtrack for your daily experience, I want to hear the story.
throw these out of my head in quick bouts between working on two
movies, my own moving image projects, not included, three comics,
(not telling yet), and a sum total of five albums of various styles
at diffent points of production.

Along
with the sound transmissions, the lyrics were extending into stories.
The lyrics to most songs I'd done so far were dreamlike fragments of
one continuous tale. I wanted to bring some of the underlying
structure into focus. At the same time I listened to others stories.
I was especially interested to hear some apocalyptic tales. Ragnarok,
Armageddon, the end of one life and the beginning of another. The
death of the ego, the body, a belief. The hearing became expression,
and the telling of the tale that resulted was an embodiment of
experience.

Veil of thorns is an act that rarely repeats itself, but with Cognitive Dissonance, they may surprise even some long time fans. Veil of Thorns approach has

never been this stripped down, nor has their music been more complex. Stark, angular post-punk songs give way to a cello as it descends into madness. Spare

jazz-inflected tone poems lead back into sanguine deathrock dust storms.

For nearly a decade now, most of the work of front man P. Emerson Williams has been focused inward. Dissemination of his wide, varied

output took place through tales whispered in corners remote from. This conversation is part of the creative flow that forms his work.

Williams tackled the latest Veil of Thorns release by sharing the process in a new way. After having tracked the basic instrumental elements

of the next Veil Of Thorns album, "Cognitive Dissonance", Veil of Thorns released podcasts created from the sonic raw material of the tracks as they

progressed. Through the bands website, blog comments and emails the resulting conversation helped expand the bands vision while focusing the tale being

told.

Inspired by scrambled radio signals coming through the

guitar as he laid down the tracks, Williams created long form compositions using montage techniques derived from the work of Williams Burroughs and Bryon

Gysin. Unlike the album itself, he layered, layered the layers and added extra layers to boot. His machines freaked out and became possessed in the process.

Where podcasts are often in a format similar to radio shows, Veil of Thorns ranks among a select group of sound and video artists who are stretching the

boundaries of the form into unique works of art.

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 archetypical 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 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.

Agape,



-333