Artist: Mystic Veil
Country: USA
Label: Sinister Shadow
Formats: LP
Year: 2025
Although ‘What Misery Thou Art Fallen… Taste Of Death But Once’ is mentioned as a compilation LP, it is not much of compilation in the typical sense. Side A has the ‘What Misery Thou Art Fallen’ demo tape, originally released in 2022 and reissued on cassette tape in 2023 by Banner Of Blood, and the record’s flipside has ‘…Taste Of Death But Once’ demo, but that one is brand new. So, the American Raw Black Metal band took the opportunity to present a new demo recording and, at the same time, put their first demo tape back in the spotlight.
Since I’ve already reviewed ‘What Misery Thou Art Fallen’ when it came out, we can mostly concentrate on Mystic Veil’s newest recordings. Just like the first demo, this too is one single, lengthy track. This time, the performance lasts well over fifteen minutes and largely feels like a continuation of what has been done on ‘Hanging Low The Millstone’-album that was released on cassette tape by Altare Productions late last year. Mystic Veil still lives up to its name, taking you on a journey through realms of dark and slightly oppressive Black Metal. The haunting synthesizers that alternately move forward like a tidal wave from the deeper regions of the composition, give the music a truly mystical atmosphere, like a more melancholic and delirious variant of, for example, Paysage d’Hiver. On top of that is a raw production that is borderline Lo-Fi and adds much to the overall experience and allows the listener to discover the subcutaneous melodies and other deeply tucked away details.
Although ‘What Misery Thou Art Fallen’ was already covered, it is by no means a punishment to go through that 20-minute debut demo. It still stands strong and thus proves to have been an excellent blueprint for Mystic Veil’s musical formula. If you missed the cassette tape version of Banner Of Blood, it’s not a bad idea to see if you can get hold of this LP somewhere; you’ll kill two birds with one stone.
