Ninth Realm – Damnation’s Veil Review

[Cover Art by Jerry “Wyrmwalk” Hionis]

Damnation’s Veil, the sophomore effort from Maryland crossover thrashers Ninth Realm, has got me thinking a little bit about time travel. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of a particular album converting your brain into an inter-dimensional time machine that can journey to the battlefields of the distant past or the freshly terra-forming ecosystems of the far-flung future. Damanation’s Veil’s had just such an effect, transporting me all the way back to … about four months ago in Houston, Texas. That was when I took a fleeting break from the responsibilities of being a husband and dad to attend the Hell’s Heroes festival.

Hell’s Heroes was a blast. I got to witness a breathtakingly accomplished performance of Balls to the Wall by Udo Dirkschneider and his band of merry shredders. I locked arms with fellow travelers and reveled in a reputation salvaging performance by the recently much-maligned (at least in these corners) Eternal Champion. And, to the point of today’s topic, I was reminded that listening to heavy meal is, at least to me, a significantly physical experience. If you’ll allow me to set aside the ethics of moshing debate for a moment, I’d like to simply assert that every so often I really enjoy being in an environment of friendly, consensual violence. Given my day to day largely revolves around teaching toddlers about the finer points of active listening, sharing and thinking about our words before we say them out loud (and trying to practice those lessons myself through endless screen-mediated check-ins and loop-backs) no part of me can deny the salutatory effects of being hurled to the ground by a 300-lb Mexican dude wearing a Pleasure to Kill back patch.

Here was my medium responsible HH routine: embrace the fleeting and exquisite opportunity to sleep past 10 AM, wander the streets of Houston in search of a passable breakfast, then return to my hotel room and drink 4 Shiner Bocks as quickly as possible so I wouldn’t have to drop $10 for a domestic brew at the venue. And so anyway, the first few hours on the festival grounds after the bocks were go-time, dawg. Very few of my favorite bands hit the stage in these hours, but the most enduring memories of the festival revolved around trading forearms and shoulder-meat with my fellow weekend warriors during sets from Toxic Holocaust, Tankard and Whiplash. It’s all a bit of blur of getting knocked to the ground, picked back up, and hoisted ass over elbow into a sea of frantic and friendly arms only to be safely deposited right back down onto my own two feet. For a feller like me who has a golden retriever where his brain ought to go, it’s simply a 10/10 experience. But here’s where I have to kinda hand it to the anti-mosh contingent: as much as those post-Bock bashings are precious memories to me, the actual sound of the music is not a core part of those recollections.

So what’s up with all this yammering, then? What’s up is that Ninth Realm mostly makes the kind of muscular metalcore that I would very much enjoy getting my ass beat to, and then immediately forget.

This is hard hitting but po-faced stuff–the kind of no-nonsense battery that mostly serves to remind the

listener that nonsense is often where the beauty lives in this whole putting emotions to sound game. Track after track relies on a reliable but reliably predictable formula of 1-3-4 power chord thrashings, with fleeting melodies exactly doubled or harmonized at the fifth. Tough guy stuff, no time for goofs and gaffes on the track when there’s frowning to be done. “Damnation’s Veil” is a competently structured mid-paced bruiser built around a foreboding Phrygian scale riff that could certainly motivate a pack of goons to strut around in concentric circles.

“Cohorts of the Abyss” is another mover, conjuring Dismember’s conjuration of Autopsy.  You know what I’m hearing on these tracks? I’m hearing rehearsal room riffs arranged into tracks in Spartan fashion. Big sounding shit that absolutely bangs coming out of the amps or through the playback monitors, but starts to wither a bit under the scrutinizing ears of weary listeners looking for a little something/anything to make them say “hmmm.” And so yes, mostly, Damnation’s Veil is less a record of note than promotional material for a live experience.

But, ah! That mostly is load bearing. This one does have some shit it.

“Wyrd of Stideborne” is less stern metallic hardcore and more jaunty melodic metalcore with a some sugar tossed in the tea thanks to harmonized riffing atop homesick Scandi-style tremolo. “Twilight’s Blade” takes us to the NWOBHM zone; while much of Damnation’s Veil is built around stock and blocky down-picked riffs, here the horses get their chance to gallop and they’re runnin’ free, yeah. While I’ll bet this one was born in the jam room, it also carries the mark of some lonely hours in the woodshed getting tweaked until it was just right. “Beyond the Void” is your standout. There’s a chain-swinging bluesy breakdown here that, yes, will absolutely slit throats in a live setting and through your sensible motor vehicle’s sound system. Rather than just pushing aggression uber alles, here the boys ease up the gas, develop some interesting and catchy riffs, and set your ears up to really hear them. I’d take much, much more of this.

Ca. 2026, the metal critics job is less about telling you what you ought to listen to, and maybe more about giving you a few inklings about how you ought to listen to it. My “how” here is pretty simple; get off your ass for Damnation’s Veil. Throw some weight around to this album. Plug it in for when you need a little boost at the end of a run. Do you ever just go into your backyard and throw stuff? These be jams for huckin’ stuff; not sitting and thinkin’. And, by all means, if the opportunity arises to get cordially pummeled by your fellow man while Ninth Realm does their thing in the background, take it.