Veil is the solo work of Stolzträger who hails from Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA (though there seems to be some speculation on this matter as I've seen other people say he's from Wisconsin and also Europe) and Dolor from 2004 is his second demo, which was later re-released on CD with a bonus track, though I only own the cassette version. Stolzträger plays hypnotic depressive black metal with a bit of the classic Filosofem Burzum style, though where 95% of the imitators flat out fail miserably at this sort of thing I think Veil actually succeeds quite well. The guitars have a typical raw black metal tone that's of course filled with reverb and unlike a whole lot of depressive black metal bands I actually find that Veil's riffs carry a sense of melancholy to them as well as a bit of a longing for more ancient times and I guess by that I mean that they have some sort of strange epic character to them that I really don't know how to explain. The music as you'd probably already guessed moves at a slower pace then your average Marduk clone and through these slower black/doomy lengthy compositions Mr. Stolzträger creates a great atmosphere. Also not to make another Burzum comparison, but his vocals do tend to have a little bit of a Vargy thing going on, but it's unavoidable I suppose, there's even a cover of, 'Ea, Lord of the Depths' on this demo to hammer down the fact that he appreciates that fine Norwegian citizens music. Yes...
Anyway, all in all this is some fine material and since I generally avoid depressive black metal like I avoid church it's at least refreshing to hear one that isn't completely awful once in a while. In more recent times Veil has gone on to release a full-length called, 'Sombre,' which I haven't heard just yet, but I guess I should someday.
Oh, and, I guess they say Stolzträger is a skinhead NS individual... so, approach with caution if things like that offend you...
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