piercing the veil

We spoke to the French atmospheric/progressive black metal band's mastermind, The Arsonist, about how his dramatic and complex concepts come to life.

Maryland-based Devil's Reef discuss their inspirations and approach to death metal, which renders cosmic horror via digestible, riff-packed experimentation.

The Egyptian band's latest album "Carving the Fires of Akhet" is a punishing and intricate death metal album focused on the history and mythology of their region, but it's also influenced by the present day. We talked to band members Ismaeel Attallah and Youssef Saleh about their latest record.

Liturgy's unusual approach to black metal, both sonically and conceptually, can be hard to grasp. We talked to bandleader Hunter Hunt-Hendrix about her atypical approach to black metal and how it connects to her personal philosophies.

The death/sludge outfit Slugdge might seem superficial at first, but the concept goes deeper than clever puns and outlandish lore. Learn more with our interview with Slugdge's Matt Moss.

The Denver, Colorado atmospheric black/folk metal band has heavily integrated elements of American Western music into not only their sound, but their mentality. We talked to guitarist/vocalist Shane McCarthy to dive into their unusual perspective.

Consisting of masked members with numerical identifiers, Fractal Generator is a faceless exploration of some of the strange thought experiments science fiction has to offer. We talked with the (as it turns out, human) band to understand more.

The New York-based avant-garde metal trio aims to tell the story of their home city, taking aesthetic inspiration from its near-mythical past. This edition of Piercing the Veil explores the band's musical and conceptual ties to the Big Apple.

Combining impossibly groovy stoner metal with a fantastical amphibian concept grounded in eco-conservatism, the UK's Froglord is an ideal starting point for this column, which dives deep into thematic bands that are more than just a gimmick.