Void Of Silence
Toward The Dusk

LA RECENSIONE

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

The Void of Silence is born from a reflection. Which is followed by another, and another, again, again, and again… the self asks why. Why the world, why life; it especially asks why THIS terrible world, THIS terrible life. The answer obviously does not exist and this absence to which the mind turns, searching in vain for meaning, represents the Void, so metaphysical in its essence, so terribly real in its tangibility.

This Void could truly be the place of Silence, peace, calm, the goal of existence; but we are not in a Buddhist universe, which navigates avoiding any possible answer to questions it does not intend to ask: here we are in an exquisitely human, Western perspective: questions without solutions burn, they bite at the conscience, they scream. Silence is a mirage because it immediately generates visions, noises, Chaos. And the music of Void Of Silence is the materialization of these nightmares.

This introduction is to explain the philosophy behind the project: which starts from earthly roots, very human to be honest, to then transcend all humanity, giving life to a universe overwhelmed by funerary images, nothing but the mirror of this reality. The terrible images behind the band's music are nothing but the apparent madness of humanity. Ivan Zara and Riccardo Conforti formed the first core of the Ostia-based VOS in 1998, which would not release an album until 2001, with this Toward The Dusk. They were joined by vocalist Malfeitor Fabban, already the mind behind the Romans Aborym.

The music that emerges from the meeting of these three minds is the perfect synthesis of their personalities: the "metallic" side of guitarist Ivan Zara, the electronic side of drummer Riccardo Conforti, and finally Malfeitor Fabban, the "extreme" pinnacle of the triangle.

Toward The Dusk is the first full-length in their discography and also the least known chapter of the band, penalized by the lack of publicity offered by Nocturnal Music. It should also be the first chapter of the trilogy of which the group's entire production is composed for now, but the information perceivable from the internet focuses on the other two chapters, keeping this one in the shadows. The trilogy should tackle a challenging revisitation of the last World War, through the outbreak of conflict (the second Criteria Ov 666) and the postwar period (the last Human Antithesis); however, I believe this first album should represent the imminence of conflict, the moments of waiting before the drama (but the lyrics have never been disclosed).

The musical proposal aligns well with the band's intentions, expressed by the artwork and the moniker: an extremely cold, slow, and repetitive doom, on which samples, keyboard parts, and synthesizers rest. The metallic part is especially entrusted to the riffing of Ivan Zara, in the Albion school (My Dying Bride and Anathema), therefore far from the heaviness of Funeral; yet the final effect is even more oppressive and claustrophobic than any previous attempt, thanks to some solutions that set Void Of Silence apart from any easy classification.

"Elemental Pain" is somewhat the manifesto of this sound: leaden chords, slowed rhythms, effects, and samples bordering on industrial; above these rise Fabban's black-oriented vocals, dividing between hoarse whispers, whispered phrases, and fierce screaming: the result forms a "pleasant" contrast with the growls favored by canonical doom. In a good part of the songs, this singing is replaced or added to by the use of choirs, mostly with one voice (perhaps Fabban himself), a macabre parody of Gregorian ones.

Even though the rhythms are constantly slow, the album is listenable thanks to the variety of the pieces, supported by crystal-clear production that emphasizes the sounds and electronics; the atmosphere of the pieces betrays precisely that sense of painful anticipation, which envelops every single note with anguish: the album never explodes in cathartic accelerations, ambient passages that would soften the agony. It is a slow progression towards an increasingly conscious end. Slowly. Slowly.

They will do better with the following albums, but certainly, the maximum cannot be denied to them. Rating: 9