Review: “This Will Not Be Painless…” by Veil Piercer

It is written that just seven months after their formation, Death Groove mercenaries Veil Piercer recorded their debut EP “This Will Not Be Painless…” with Joe Clayton (Desert Storm, Pupil Slicer, Conjurer) at No Studio in Manchester. Clayton would go on to mix and master the record from a line up with connections to Lifeswallower, Enochian Theory and Cult of the Skull, the promise being of something slower, heavier and more slamming with a strong focus on groove, weight and direct impact. That makes it sound very much like bassist Craig Millington, vocalist Liam Drewe, guitarist vocalist Matthew Sharp and drummer vocalist Benedict Harris-Hayes are about to hit us like a freight train…

The voice of a medium starting a seance introduces “Plague” before the blood begins to flow across the killing floor, Drewe’s classic death growls accompanying barbed mid tempo riffs in satisfyingly distorted tones and pounding percussion which sounds clean and crisp. A sinister an oppressive atmosphere creates a tension that you can cut with a knife and when the medium speaks once more, this time to usher away a dark force on the other side of the void in the final moments it’s a real cliffhanger. That makes way for the brutal “Death Rattle” which offers up a barrage of groove laden riffs and a couple of moments that threaten to turn into Deathcore breakdowns but don’t, Sharp opting for the neck snapping abrasions rather than something to put bounce in the mosh pit. At points it like having your ears cleaned out with wire wool as well as being the most fun you can have without losing a limb, the guitars, drums and bass creating a Meshuggah like wall of restless, relentless and repentless noise to shatter your skull with.

If you thought that Veil Piercer were going to offer up some kind of power ballad in the middle of this mayhem then “Void” will put you right with its dirge rhythms designed from the ground up to wreck necks. The intensity of the downtempo grooves puts the band in a whole new realm of existence, Drewe’s demonic vocals making him the dark force which the medium references between the cuts. “Reign Of The Fallen” is front loaded with menacing and sinister overtones, the poly-rhythmic sounds reaching new levels of depravity as the song plays out. What works well about all these tunes is that the riffs get inside your head and while they’re not reinventing the wheel they are lethally effective in every sense of those words and the continued presence of the medium’s voice between the songs adds to that sense of malevolence almost like having a narrator. Eerie sounds begin to creep into “When We Die” as Drewe asks questions about the afterlife and when the band go lower and slower in the final third it’s a demonstration of impressive musicianship. Like a classic Stephen King novel “This Will Not Be Painless…” is a horror story that you simply can’t put down once you’ve started listening to it [7.5/10]

Track Listing

1. Plague
2. Death Rattle
3. Void
4. Reign Of The Fallen
5. When We Die

“This Will Not Be Painless…” by Veil Piercer is out 6th October 2026 via Prog On! Recordings