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This time we start from the end. We listen to the verses of Baudelaire's "The Denial of St. Peter," recited by Atratus (voice of Tronus Abyss and guest on this latest chapter by Void of Silence) in CXVIII. And then, we take a look at the images contained in the beautiful internal booklet. Statues of Angels and Saints, impassive, contemplating the rubble and ruins left by war. Cold faces, in their marble essence, without a shadow of pity and compassion for the madness of man.
The new course of Void of Silence almost completely abandons the rage and hostility of the previous "Criteria af 666," leaving room only for ashes. In this latest concept album (inspired by World War II), everything has already been accomplished. The battle has left space only for a vast expanse of smoke and rubble.
And every hope is now in vain.
The resulting sound has become even darker, blacker, and more opaque. Their characteristic apocalyptic doom is today wrapped, as in a shroud, in the infinite reverberation of the keyboards, never so powerfully influenced by Dark-ambient sonorities. And far off, the echo of bombs still resounds. In this sense, the album presents an impressive work of samples for the care, effectiveness, and magnificence of the arrangements. The final result sounds almost like a single oppressive, desperate, and chilling soundtrack for the funeral of humankind and every religion created by it.
Searching for the "riff" or the chorus is futile. The guitars are almost in the background, and on more than one occasion, among various doom episodes, the influences of the best apocalyptic folk are heard.
Alan Nemtheanga’s voice (singer of Primordial) then proves to be most suitable to the music of Void of Silence. On a lyrical level, his contribution is outstanding in theatricality and effectiveness (at times, he even reminded me of Roger Waters of "The Wall"), as well as fundamental for the completion of this new artistic dimension of the group.
In any case, a track-by-track review is unnecessary, although I would like to mention episodes such as the immense (also for its duration of over 20 minutes) "Human Antithesis," divided into three parts, or "Dark Static Moments." I believe this work will surely appeal to all fans of the darkest and most apocalyptic Doom (see Esoteric), but certainly, it is worth noting that it is perhaps not within everyone's reach. A dark and elitist proposal for a "difficult" album, which surely requires more than one listen to be fully assimilated, but which for this very reason, I found frighteningly fascinating. Praise to Void of Silence!
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By deathinaugust
"There are losses that communicate a sublimity to the soul, in which it refrains from complaint and walks silently as under tall black cypresses."
The atmosphere is laden with Desperation, in the original sense of the term: nothing remains to man apart from his pain, which is eternal and unchangable.
