Veil of Maya In Concert

For Chicago-based band Veil of Maya, sonic rules are meant to be broken. Take the Chicago band’s 2017 effort ‘False Idol.’ Although the full-length incorporates plenty of major metalcore hallmarks — buzzsawing guitars and vocals that alternate between banshee screams and a cleaner, melodic delivery — the album also weaves in old-school metal thrashing and atmospheric programming with a symphonic touch. 

Such boundary-busting is second nature to Veil of Maya. The group originally formed in 2004 out of the ashes of a death metal band called Insurrection that featured guitarist/programmer Marc Okubo and drummer Sam Applebaum. At the time, Okubo wanted to emulate Meshuggah and At the Gates. Accordingly, Veil of Maya’s earliest work — including and especially the band’s full-length debut for Sumerian Records, 2008’s ‘The Common Man’s Collapse’ — also hewed toward deathcore and technical metal.

Yet as the band swapped vocalists and weathered multiple other lineup changes, their sound evolved into something far more original. The doom-heavy 2010 effort ‘[id],’ which peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, boasts dynamic arrangements that add dramatic flair to punishing blast beats, frenetic synth spurts, and brain-bending rhythms. ‘Matriarch’ — which became the band’s highest-charting album upon its 2015 arrival — split the difference between melodic metalcore and gnarly technical metal with funhouse synth programming.

Veil of Maya’s live reputation precedes them — perhaps because the band has grown into the most popular of road acts, thanks to stints on multiple Summer Slaughter tours, at Mayhem Festival, and on the Vans Warped Tour, in addition to many package tours with heavy music’s A-team. It’s easy to see why Veil of Maya is in demand, though: Their shows are formidable displays of technical skill and precision, amplified with bone-crushing volume and sound. In 2019, tours with Dance Gavin Dance and a spring U.S. jaunt with Intervals only cemented Veil of Maya’s brutality crown.