Veriteras - U.S. melodic extreme metal coming to Finland in May

The debut full-length Shadow of Death (nine songs, almost 32 minutes; March 10th, 2022) follows the 2020 and 2021 EPs. Fast, sometimes blasting, the music sounds tight and skilled, part melodic death metal and part melodic black metal. The vocals are prototypical melodeath growling, which basically means black metal vocals. It is the classic Mille Petrozza (Kreator)* shriek scream, as revealed on the albums Terrible Certainty (1987) and Extreme Aggression (1989), the inspiration for classic In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates vocals, a style also found in the melodic black metal of Dissection and Sacramentum, and the deathrash of Merciless, all Swedish bands.

(*The German band did play live in the late 1980s in Sweden. The young Mille’s live vocals were the prototypical style later known as Gothenburg melodeath.)

This melodic extreme metal heritage, by way of Scandinavia and Finland, gives Veriteras a classy, tight execution, an abundance of guitar hooks, riffs and melodies that manifest amply that great care has been taken to avoid “play-on” lazy, chugging riffs. There is good melodic singing in some spots, but they do not use it as a predictable formula on every song. There are background keyboards present, at a lower volume, for smoothness. The one area that the dynamics are lost to some degree is the drum sound. It is clear and all, but not as vibrant as the sound of real drums. By the way, Veriteras has somehow organized for themselves a tour of Finland. I figure that one of the boys had the ridiculous idea of playing in Finland. Someone said, “Dude, that’d be funny if we called bars in Finland and booked a tour!” The boys laughed about it while enjoying their diablo hot sauce burritos with Pepsi at the local Taco Bell in the U District. Then, out of curiosity, one of them looked up their favorite Finnish bands’ cities on Facebook and began calling from Washington state to Finland.

Yes, so in May of 2022 the Washingtonians will be in Finland. Believe or not, Finnish friends. These boys are coming to see you.

Shadow of Death by Veriteras

https://www.facebook.com/VeriterasMetal