The
beginning starts with the end, and what I mean by that is the first track off
of Book of Illusions: Chapter I sounds like the end of someone's story,
but not their life. Entitled Kano this song spoke to me the most, simply
because of this contradiction. At one moment, the song picks up, then dies off
and hovers there, and boom! Guitars enter the situation and they are crying out
of loss, it almost sounds like a guitar that thinks it's a sax playing the
blues.
The rest of the CD is quite different however. Kano is based on the new age sound with rock undertones while the rest can easily be considered doom/death metal. Track 2: Freedom to Fly reminds me of a combination of Theatre of Tragedy and Radiohead, the vocals are not extremely prominent through out this CD, and at first this bothered me, but as I listened the vocals are nearly always in complete sync, which I found impressive.
But all the way through the CD what grabs me the most are the guitars, especially in Behold the Night. Two separate guitars in the beginning, and when the drums come into play, the guitars mimic the drums in a way I don't think I have heard anyone do before. I was overly impressed by this song for that simple fact. The vocals for this song seem to me to be mostly a filler, to break the repetition.
The man behind VLE goes by just that. VLE means oddly enough eViL onE. In a recent e-mail VLE talks to me about the CD. "It came from within me as naturally as I would speak English," said the New York artist
My only complaint is the sound quality. Now don't get me wrong here, it's not static but it's dull in places. "Yes, the sound quality isn't good at all. A lot of the music was done on a shitty 4-track. All the music is improvised and wasn't meant to be heard by anyone," admits VLE.
This makes the CD seem more like a precious thing to have because of that, though. Where as most artists make the music with intentions of being heard by other people, thus affecting the music. VLE's music, though it may not be a top 40 hit, is completely honest, no holds barred. Maybe that's what real music is all about, making it for yourself to reflect yourself rather than for others to reflect what you want them to see.
Contact Information:
Post: VLE c/o J. Ross, 455 West 34th St., #14C, New York, NY,
10001
E-Mail: vle25@hotmail.com
Web: http://www.mp3.com/vle
