Dies Irae – Secret Veils of Passion (2012)

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As one of the first band’s that got me into more ‘melodic’ and ‘different’ sounding music back in 1998 with their excellent album “Etherial”, Dies Irae returns after a 10 year hiatus with “Secret Veils of Passion”. In this very interesting release the band goes all over the place with so many musical influences that seem a bit disconnected at times, but that in fact create a very solid release with a wide palette of textures and very high-creativity.

While many band’s in Mexico are clones from European ones, Dies Irae crafted two of the most interesting releases of Mexican metal in the late 90’s and the disappeared. With a hint of an European sound, “Etherial” was a landmark release with its hefty Jazz/Fusion influences that puzzled many. With “Secret Veils of Passion” they continue through their exploratory musical journey and have produces 10 unique tracks that have some memorable moments.

“Want” opens the release with nice Jazzy sections and pretty straightforward riffing, bringing back the “Etherial” feeling but with a modern Gothic Rock edge on the vocals, very interesting and enjoyable. There are some Post-Metal/Rock elements here and there that just make this track a bit more diverse than what one would expect. “To” goes off the wall with some experimental atmospheric elements that feel more like an Avant-garde release, but since the release is still on it’s early stages we will see where this leads us to. “For” goes a back to a Melodic Death Metal sound that is very hectic where the vocals sound a bit crappy in our opinion, but feature nice and engaging guitar work.

“Fight” goes back to a trance inducing atmospheric track with very interesting and mellow clean vocals, a very soothing track that keeps the album quite interesting. “Sex” delivers a weird Gothic Rock/Metal vibe with some pretty cool jazzy sections, one of our favorite tracks of this release. The 9-minute song “E7en” is our favorite song of this album due to it’s interesting atmospheric opening and its transformation into a Doom-ish track that reminded us of Decoryah and Katatonia (when they switched to clean vocals). This song is highly emotional and it nicely flows from begging to end.

If you are in the mood for more jazzy passages and Post-Rock elements, “Hate” delivers another 9 minutes of very interesting music. The clean and spoken vocals are very fitting for the atmosphere of the song and give you sometime a My Dying Bride edge. The closing riffs and bass guitar line are just excellent and somewhat disconcerting on how they switch things up. Closing the album aggressively, “Night” delivers a very hectic track with screams, but it also mixes them with the clean vocals trippy/jazzy sections that the other tracks introduce.

In general, “Secret Veils of Passion” is indeed an interesting release since it is very unique sounding. However, there are a few elements too much or just a bit disconnected that do not allow this album to be great. The jazzy and ethereal passages are excellent but sometimes feel a bit too odd when sandwiched between faster paced sections. Dies Irae is a quality band, and if they focus their experimentation to a few things and consolidate them, their next release should be outstanding.

Band: Dies Irae Album: Secret Veils of Passion
Label: Chaos Records

Release: January 9th, 2012

Oficial Site myspace
Genre: Atmospheric Metal/Post-Rock

Country: Mexico

Rating: 85/100
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