MP3 Review: Eyes Behind the Veil "Besides"

[Name Your Price Download // https://eyesbehindtheveil.bandcamp.com/album/besides]

I've recently made similar claims in other reviews, but Eyes Behind the Veil is just another example as to why we need to have a classification for music that isn't quite instrumental but is much closer to it than most other bands.     Yes, the vocals in these songs are not always there, but this isn't even a matter of something like Pyramids where there is a greater ratio of music to vocals-- most of these songs are instrumentals.

With swirly bliss the songs on "Besides" are ambient and the first one does have vocals interlaced in the background.   On some level musically this reminds me of Mazzy Star at times and that is a comparison I used to seemingly always use but haven't as much lately.     A little bit of shoegaze with that wavy, ringing guitar reverb style and these songs are at a much slower pace than what you are probably thinking of it being.   If I knew it didn't mean something else, I'd say that this variant of shoegaze was so relaxed that it could be chillwave but I'm pretty sure chillwave has beats.

Somehow, the songs do become droning even though this is not really drone.   I've been listening to this with some other music, some of which is on cassette, and one of the artists specifcally is so drone that I can't think of calling Eyes Behind the Veil drone because of the complexity of the music and that it is not only out there on the surface for all to hear, but buried deep inside waiting to be found as well.

The vocals return on "Crooked Limbs" and they are more prominent than previously found on "Besides" but the funny thing is that song is one I always immediately recogize when I listen to this album because for whatever reason it reminds me of Nirvana's "Something in the Way".    By the end it's back to being instrumental and ultimately fades out quietly.    It's the type of mood that you'd expect to be captured on vinyl or even cassette but you can download it for whatever price you'd like.   I'd suggest either paying $5 when downloading it or tell at least five people you know about it and make sure they do in fact download it and do the same.