Though Dødheimsgard dazzled many with Black Medium Current, so much so that it made its way onto our critical Top 40 of 2023, it’s important to look to their contemporaries for further forays into the strange and bewildering in black metal. Featuring two former Dødheimsgard guitarists among their ranks, Void shows two students of Vicotnik’s style–right channel guitarist Camille Giraudeau (Dreams of the Drowned) and vocalist and left channel guitarist Matt Jarman–taking “DHG”‘s fearlessness and running with it. This isn’t to say Void are an outright clone, rather a spiritual successor to Vicotnik’s bizarre kingdom–Void’s Jadjow album features a dizzying array of genre, melodic approaches, and songwriting styles, all displayed in breakneck succession. Much like DHG, Void present an overwhelming amount of material on their new album–over an hour of avant-post-black metal madness–and playfully pass it to the unsuspecting listener with a gleeful smile. Some might find this off-putting, but black metal has always been weird. Next time you try to gatekeep black metal’s traditional values, look to Master’s Hammer, DHG, Ved Buens Ende, and now Void to break that cycle. Jadjow is streaming in full below.
From the artist:
Void, established 1999, despite bearing the cursed, most generic moniker in metal history, is anything but generic in style. Each record demonstrates unrestrained enthusiasm for working outside of traditional genre constraints, combining disparate influences, untethering the band from its own past, whilst remaining quintessentially still recognisable as Void.
Jadjow means our spiritual playground: The altar at which these dispersed pilgrims met to make this music. Free of expectations. Anything is possible.
The band has its roots very firmly in black metal but is a child of the millennial turn, when black metal was more freeform: DHG’s 666 International, Thorns Vs Emperor, Mayhem’s Grand Declaration of War, Ved Buens Ende, Ulver, Fleurety… the list goes on and on. It was a time of unique creative flair and that is the path that Void chose to follow from its outset. Although some tropes of black metal remain, principally blast beats and tremolo guitar picking, the latest evolution of the Void sound pushes the band yet further to the fringes of the genre, but in such a way that prioritizes melody, song structure and listenability over shock value, gimmicks or unconventional textures. As such perhaps the sound has increasingly as much to do with the prog rock of King Crimson as it does with the black metal you hear at festivals today? Jadjow is very much a child of the pandemic, both lyrically and logistically. It was written and recorded by an all new lineup, working out of remote studios and communicating online. Each new member brought their own musical style and flair to the sound: Camille Giraudeau’s noise-like, wailing melodies and churning chaos of guitar; Lars Emil Måløy’s contrary motion melodies and growling, subsonic throbbing bass; Tariq Zulficar’s syncopated, hyper-technical maelstrom drumming, built over Geegor’s creative black metal arrangements… overlaid by my own melodic vocals that attempt to add a coherent hook whilst also making sense of the chaos. With all these elements working together there was no need this time around for the overdubs and samples of the past records. It’s two guitars, bass and drums, wrapped up in a clear and ear -friendly mix production by Raph Henry at Heldscalla and Benoit Roux Drudenhaus mastering.
This is also perhaps the most political Void album, in reaction to the events and attitudes of the era. Polarization, alienation, conspiracy and confusion. Losing friends and alienating people. This is the way the world is? Not just a literary concept but a commentary.
Despite the international line up we are putting together a live show.
Thank you so very much for your time.
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