Veil of Maya and Intervals

(Originally Published on South Florida Insider)

Modern Progressive Metal Legends Bring a Riot of a Show to the Revolution –Review of the Veil of Maya and Intervals Concert at Revolution Live in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Photos and Story by: Gleb Barabanov

In the relatively short time they’ve been on the scene, Veil of Maya has become one of the heavy hitters in modern metal. Combining absolutely brutal riffs and catchy vocals laced with guttural screams, they quickly became one of the stand-out bands of the Sumerian “djent” metal scene, headlining tours all over the world and releasing five acclaimed major studio albums. And when I heard that they were coming to town with the amazing instrumental wizards in Intervals, I knew that this was not a show to be missed for any reason.

The opening act was a group dubbed “Strawberry Girls”, who I had not heard of before. Despite the confusing name, (the band was filled not with anthropomorphic fruit girls as I pictured in my head, but instead with extremely talented musicians), the band absolutely blew me away. Consisting of three multi-instrumentalists, Girls’ music reminds me of an instrumental version of “The Fall of Troy”, which is a very interesting recipe as they are one of my favorite bands. A few songs had vocals, but for the most part it was all improvised and instrumental, and the band sounding incredibly tight and practiced. The Californian trio did an absolutely amazing job and completely won me over, making me an instant fan.

Up next were the six-string masterminds in Intervals. As I was a huge fan of the instrumental version of their first album A Voice Within, I was really stoked when they decided to embrace the instrumental direction that they both began with on their first EP and went in on the last two instead of looking for a new vocalist. Guitar genius Aaron Marshall really assembled a crack squad of co-conspirators for this tour, as the band sounded tighter than ever. And as a fellow guitar gear nerd, it was awesome to see the band rock Dingwalls, Suhrs and Aristides as those are some of my absolute favorite instrument brands but quite rare to see out in the wild (that purple sparkle 060 was something else!). The group started out with A Different Light from their new album The Way Forward and the crowd went absolutely wild! After a few more songs from The Shape of Color and The Way Forward, Aaron surprised the crowd by bringing out three songs from their first breakout EP In Time. The group played Alchemy, Epiphany, and Mata Hari as their encore as a shout out to their old school fans that have stuck with them the longest.

Intervals’ amazing set was a tough act to follow, but if anyone could do it, it would be the crushers in Veil of Maya. After what felt like forever, the lights finally dimmed and Veil’s guitarist Marc Okubo ran onto the stage with his signature pink ash Kiesel as the show began. Vocalist Lucas Magyar appeared from the back and the opening song, We Bow in its Aura from their first studio release, began. After a few songs from their latest album False Idols and their hit record Matriarch (their first release with Lucas as their singer), the group busted out some older stuff from [id] and The Common Man’s Collapse much to the pleasure of the old school fans of the band. Finishing off with Subject Zero and The Punisher as their encore, Veil kept the entire crowd moving in one giant circle pit during their encore.

It was an intimate, absolutely fantastic show and I cannot recommend enough seeing both Intervals and Veil of Maya live if you ever get the chance.