The Veil of Control

Dust never sleeps
dB rating: 8/10

Release Date: September 23rd, 2016
Label: Profound Lore

Dysrhythmia inhabit a pocket universe all their own in the math/progressive metal continuum, one built as much on their command of time as an agent of flow (rather than genre-typical disjunction) as on Kevin Hufnagel and Colin Marston’s capacity for blurring the lines between melody, harmony, dissonance and the spectral voluptuousness that helps make the trio’s seventh album a handy Netflix stand-in for non-traditionalists looking to chill. None of the latter traits are born of pure vacuum: the guitarist and bassist/producer/engineer regularly broach related terrain in the various entities they help populate both singly and together, Gorguts included.

What most sets Veil of Control apart from everything they’ve done previously in and out of Dysrhythmia is an instrument Hufnagel has been warming up to for many minutes: the 12-string—in this case, a custom built by Marc Chicoine (also responsible for Luc Lemay’s guitars) that he uses exclusively on the album. Hufnagel keeps his sound fairly crystalline throughout, dialing in just enough sustain on orchestrally chorded passages for Marston and master drummer Jeff Eber to perform spectacular feats of musicianship as integral to the compositions as the guitarist’s enthrallingly alien themes. (Hufnagel future-shreds all over the place, too.) Hearing Marston tremolo-pick his storied Ibanez six-string with the viciousness of seven ordinary corpse-painted playboys is just part of a bigger payoff: No guitarist/bassist team since Sonny Sharrock and Bill Laswell circa Last Exit have traded roles so often, or with so much power and grace.

— Rod Smith
This review taken from the October 2016 issue.