Veil Of Maya

The American modern metal band’s guitarist Marc Okubo on their India debut and working on their latest record ‘False Idol’

- Anurag Tagat

WHEN FANS ASK OF CHICAGO metallers Veil of Maya ask them why they can’t go back to the sound of their mid2000s, guitarist and founder member Marc Okubo has often shot back to say that those were albums which barely sold, whose promo tours were hardly attended.

Okubo says over the phone from Chicago, “We’ve continuously gotten bigger with each album. I guess we just don’t want to move backwards.” He also says that they’re a band who have never had “one big hit” to their name, which is true. Since 2004, with every one of their six albums, Veil of Maya have stayed away from gimmicks and stayed true to their strength of songwriting and crafting an album.

Their most recent albums—Matriarch (2015) and False Idol (2017)—featured clean vocals for the first time, which is one way to elicit a few groans from metalheads. Okubo, however, says, “I’m trying to create a live experience for people who are maybe not even into metal and can start to understand (our music).”

Over the years, Veil of Maya have gone from death core to metalcore and djent influences, before finally settling on a happy, crushing amalgam of modern metal, best heard on Matriarch and