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DEATHLESS VOID "The Voluptuous Fire of Sin"
DEATHLESS VOID "The Voluptuous Fire of Sin"
By Dr. Abner Mality
DEATHLESS VOID grabs my attention immediately with "Psychedelic Warfare". This is black metal that does indeed sound psychedelic, but in a very weird and warped manner. One of the better mixes of psych and black metal I have heard, right up there with the craziness of FURZE. "Void Climax" then assaults the senses with a barrage of echoing industrial strangeness that gives way to fast aggressive riffing. The song ultimately locks into a repetitive motif and seems to disintegrate into some truly unnerving sci fi noises that are apocalyptic in nature.
By now, I know I've latched on something different than the norm. These Dutchmen are determined to put the weirdness back into black metal. The genre was once wild, untamed and unpredictable but over the last 20 years has lost its edge. DEATHLESS VOID want to bring that raw weirdness back to black metal and they do a good job with "The Voluptuous Fire of Sin" (not to be confused with THE VOLUPTUOUS HORROR OF KAREN BLACK)..
There's a bit of DEATHSPELL OMEGA here, but more grounded and not so abstract. A dash of MAYHEM is also detectable. As the album wends its way, it does start to slow down and get more atmospheric without losing its rawness. A brief melodic instrumental "Iside" separates the feral first half of the album from the more measured back half, although "Burning Shapes Without Form" is perhaps the most chaotic track on the album. "Crossing The Threshold", the longest tune, has a lot of the wintry Norse sound of 90's BM.. "Purple Triad" trudges along slowly and miserably, engulfed in damp depression. This surprising album ends with "Curse On You", which almost sounds like old German thrash mixed with early 90's blackness.
This is a throwback album and I mean that in the best way. A reminder of black metal's once vibrant evil and wild abandon. Recommended.
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