Veilburner

Veilburner are a musical duo from southeastern Pennsylvania, consisting of Mephisto Deleterio (all music, production and backing vocals) and Chrisom Infernium (lyrics, main vocals and artwork). The pair came together during recording sessions for Chrisom Infernium's other band Torture Ascendancy 1307, for which Mephisto was serving as engineer/producer. Chrisom's lyrical themes of transhumanism and evolution of humanity into godhood, artistic style and research in occult theology seemed a perfect compliment to a collection of unfinished instrumental pieces that Mephisto had been working on, so a collaboration began which resulted in their first album, The Three Lightbearers, which was completed and released in August 2014. The Three Lightbearers was a critically acclaimed success, appearing on many music journalists' lists of the top albums for that year. Veilburner's musical goal is to craft albums that ebb and flow, taking the listener on a ride instead of simply presenting a collection of songs. A variety of moods, tempos, and instruments are used to achieve this, and both the songs and albums are joined to one another through a series of short transitional passages and soundscapes, making the audio continuous throughout the playing time, and linking the end of one album to the beginning of the next. Another goal is to further blur genre boundaries and experiment with sounds, voices and effects in an effort to give listeners something which adds new flavoring to the familiar. Death and black metal are at the core of the sound, with hints of industrial, classical, and middle eastern elements, along with a mad scientist approach to vocal and instrumental layers and effects, walking a fine line between offering sonic variety while maintaining a cohesive identity. The musical side of the project is accompanied by a continuing series of photography featuring the duo in a variety of strange ritualistic scenes, while donned in garments which often reflect bizarre hybrids of beasts with deities. After releasing The Three Lightbearers, Veilburner decided to expand the lyrical concept and musical narrative into a trilogy of albums. A follow-up album serving as part two of the trilogy, titled Noumenon, was recorded and released in July 2015. Noumenon represents a musical journey further down the experimental rabbit hole initially dug by The Three Lightbearers. After enjoying a favorable response similar to that of The Three Lightbearers, and with ample motiviation and momentum on their side, Veilburner began the task of writing/recording the trilogy's finale in September 2015. In April 2016, Veiburner emerged again from the creative headspace with the capstone to their three part musical homage to the arcane transhumanist ideology. The Obscene Rite further refines the sonic formula by corralling the most effective and evocative aspects of The Three Lightbearers and Noumenon, while accepting the challenge of even further artistic growth in songwriting, lyrical craftsmanship, and visual oddity.