Year: 2023
Label: Shadow Kingdom Records
Rating: 8,9 / 10
VOID from Louisiana is a band that undoubtedly sat into DeLorean about 40 years ago, jumped to our times and started playing metal right away. It's not like these are the first guys in my memory who have the deepest respect for all aspects of their chosen style, but I've rarely seen such authenticity and quality. The image, the sound, the aesthetics - everything is perfect. Tell people that this is a band from 1985, and no one will even doubt it.
In their music. VOID primarily focus on old ANNIHILATOR recordings. This is immediately obvious. But I declare with all responsibility that they are better than ANNIHILATOR (I generally have a very ambiguous attitude towards the latter). VOID plays bouncy, intense, adrenaline-fueled Thrash / Speed Metal (in that order) in a purer form. Everything that spoiled ANNIHILATOR, and eventually ruined it to shit, is thrown the fuck out off here - whether it's a ridiculous "groove", tearful ballads, or lyrics about, forgive me, chess. Here we have an explosion of youthful energy, coupled with a fantastically deep understanding and skill. Fantastically, because at the time of recording of the first VOID album, they were just teenagers – again, like in the 80s. Around 17 years old. But they play so technically and excellently that they'll give the whole elite of the scene a hard time. The vocalist, again, sounds powerful and extremely brazen. As it should be. And he's an outstanding frontman - watch the video clip below. It's from the new album, but it captures the essence of VOID even better.
I don't know what else to say, I'm just getting serious kicks out of all of it . What a beauty!
