Void - Void
This self-titled offering is UK-based 'post-black metal' band Void's first release since their 2002 debut 'Posthuman'. Forsaking the heavy use of electronica this time around Void have gone for a more natural sound, still with obvious Black Metal leanings and melodic dissonance, but updated and diversified.
The album opens with intro 'Cicatrix', nearly two minutes of electronic pulsating, throbbing and humming which is jarringly followed by the blastbeats and manic time changes of 'Alligator X-Ray'. As with much of the album, this song structure favours the linear approach so, whilst parts may be repeated, there's no obvious verse/chorus/verse etc arrangement.
Elsewhere on the album there is powerful, progressive post-Black Metal aplenty, but there are also enough elements of other styles and enough melody to keep things interesting for the full play length of 35 minutes. There's even a neo-classical piano outro at the end of track 6, 'Feral'. Track 5 'Cypher', is particularly memorable for the nifty, offbeat drumming and the satanic re-imagining of a walking blues bassline.
Apparently recorded under fairly lo-fi conditions, the production is surprisingly good; crisp and clear, but still raw enough to give plenty of bite to the overall savagery of the album.
On the whole this is an impressive comeback for Void; only occasionally do they allow themselves to tread water in stereotypical Black Metal territory (the beginning of album finale 'Babylon', for example), preferring instead to push the boundaries of experimental music with their own challenging and unpredictable style.
Well worth a listen if you're a fan of progressive black metal, fingers crossed it won't be another nine years before a follow-up is released.
Tragically, Void vocalist Ben Lowe (who also played drums with sludge/doom metallers Dead Existence) took his own life on 6th January this year.