Review by Nathan on October 4, 2021.

At this point, I wouldn't be offended if you thought I was just throwing in Transcending Obscurity releases to these top 10 lists as a way of paying off some massive lifelong debt I owe to the label. The reality is much more boring: I like music that's weird and challenging while remaining rooted in extreme metal, and T.O. seems to seek out bands across multiple genres with the intention to pursue this type of fringe sound.

Veilburner are no doubt one of the more unusual bands in the label's catalog - though not quite as jarring as Diskord or as starkly dissonant as Norse, these two masked Americans have a natural oddity to their chord shapes and a swirling psychedelia that accompanies most of them, giving an inviting warmth and eerie, antiquated horror movie soundtrack sensation to what are ostensibly very heavy and extreme riffs. If you've been spending your time looking for any kind of music in the same sonic ballpark as Akercocke, you can finally put that search to rest, because that's about the only band I can think of to compare to Veilburner (minus Jason Mendonça's trademark clean vocals, of course).

With the wide array of textures and distorted twists and turns on Lurkers In The Capsule Of Skull, it's downright impressive how listenable this record is. Sonically, this isn't very similar to Blut Aus Nord, but Veiburner shares Vindsval's innate ability to create an entrancing, emotive guitar line out of warbling dissonance. Although one member handles all the instruments (with one other separate person on vocals), this sounds dense and multifaceted while staying coherent. If the drums are programmed, it is not at all as detrimental as it should be. Lurkers In The Capsule Of Skull is a very complete, intricate album, which is even more impressive when you consider this is the band's fifth full-length album in just seven years of existence (and the one before it was just as complex!)

Rating: 7.9 out of 10

Review by Allan on April 20, 2002.

Urshurark hail from Italy, the home of not so many known metal bands. Playing a mixture of black, thrash, and death metal, I wasn’t particularly impressed by this band. But, there were rays of hope gleaming through the music, which made the listen not half bad. “Architecture of Perfect Damnation” is the bands first output, and shows us that the band may have a future ahead of them.

One of the most important things about the music of Urshurark are the keyboards. While a bit overpowering for the rest of the band at times, without them the music would be a step behind. Underneath the smooth keyboards is a layer of fast drumming and black metal guitar playing. I can’t really stand the drumming, since it was done with a drum machine. The double bass, which is used way more than needed, sounds like someone tapping their pencil on a desk at a very high speed. It’s just far to annoying for my tastes. I assume that the band will fix this next time, though. The guitars are concise and to the point though, which I like. While often a bit to similar, they often come out of the music to bring the listeners attention back, which may have been lost by the some-what repetitious structures of the song. That’s really the last bone I have to pick with Urshurark. The songs in general are anywhere from seven to eleven minutes. I enjoy long songs, but only if done well. If the band were to take their ideas and construct them better, the songs would definitely be a lot better.

Bottom Line: This is only the first offering from the band. If the band continues on and realizes where they need to improve, I see them having quite a nice future at hand. But for now, this album isn’t anything to fret over.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 5
Musicianship: 5
Atmosphere: 4
Production: 6
Overall: 5

Rating: 5 out of 10