UMUR
"The Marrow Veil" is an EP release by US progressive death metal act Howls of Ebb. The EP was released through I, Voidhanger Records in September 2015. Howls of Ebb was formed in 2012 and released their debut full-length studio album "Vigils of the 3rd Eye" in 2014.
The music on the 3 track, 34:34 minutes long EP is a filthy, raw, and quite experimental/progressive type of death metal, which is pretty much a continuation of the sound established on "Vigils of the 3rd Eye (2014)". The music has taken an even more experimental direction than on the debut album though, and "The Marrow Veil" is not an easy listening experience. Two out of the three tracks featured on the EP are very long. "Standing on Bedlam, Burning in Bliss" is 19:46 minutes long and "Iron Laurels, Woven in Rust" is 12:19 minutes long. "Dusks Tyrannical Lore" is a short ambient interlude type track. The song structures are relatively complex, and quite a lot happens during the playing time.
The sound production is very raw and a bit noisy, which makes the whole thing sound slightly messy and lo-fi. It´s not 100% true that the sound is lo-fi, but it´s very unpolished. The sound on the debut album was also very raw and unpolished but to my ears they´ve taken it a bit too far on "The Marrow Veil", and the music suffers from it.
I´m not sure where Howls of Ebb is going to take their music from here, and if "The Marrow Veil" is a sort of experiment it´s a relatively interesting one, although it´s far from flawless, but I sure hope they´ll get back to more conscise songwriting on whatever they are going to release next. It´s great to write progressive music and long tracks, but this all seems a bit unfocused and lacking memorability. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.