ALBUM REVIEW: Threads Of Unknowing – VoidCeremony
When you think of California, there are plenty of things that come to mind. Sun, sand and surf, the famous Hollywood sign, or the Golden Gate Bridge. You certainly don’t think about death metal with a frosty blackened edge. However, VOIDCEREMONY are taking great leaps to change all of that. From the very beginning vocalist/guitarist Wandering Mind (real name Garrett Johnson) has strived to create the perfect blend of technical death metal and the dark overtones and sensibilities of black metal. The foundations were laid down with a number of extended plays and culminated with 2020’s debut full-length effort Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensions Unravel and now three years later the band are looking to take things to the next level with a new offering in the form of Threads Of Unknowing.
VOIDCEREMONY know what they are good at and deliver it immediately with a perfect balance of vitriol and technical proficiency on Threads Of Unknowing (The Paradigm of Linearity). The frantic machine gun drumming of C.K (Charlie Koryn) lays the perfect platform for the intricacy of the stringed instruments with Johnson, Hyperborean Apparition (Phil Tougas) and The Great Righteous Destroyer (Damon Good) linking up to create a mind-bending plethora of lead runs and complex riffs. It says something of the level of songwriting on display that the band manage to cover more musical ground within the first three minutes of an album than most do across the entirety of a release whilst making it seem seamless.
Writhing In The Façade Of Time picks up the weighty baton laid down by its predecessor and runs full tilt. This track is one that perfectly showcases the delicate balance of writing intricate, technical death metal songs without them ever feeling showy and losing impact. The guitar solos wail and scream in perfect contrast to the guttural bark from Johnson to give the nostalgic death metal fans amongst the audience something to sink their teeth into as the band lay out a near seven-minute buffet of headbanging moments.
The latter stage of the album shows the band changing things up with the inclusion of At The Periphery Of Human Realms (The Immaterial Grave) – a song that proves that the band can change the dynamics of the album without things ever feeling like they are out of place. This is a track that swells, ebbs and flows in a way that would make most progressive metal bands envious. The echo-soaked guitars play off wonderfully against the booming sound of the drum kit and create a serene soundscape that provides the perfect reprieve for the listener.
However, if you thought this was going to be an album that would go out with a whimper then you are very much mistaken. The closing song Forlorn Portrait: Ruins Of An Ageless Slumber is an 11-minute opus that meshes the progressive elements with the sonically crushing heaviness that has encapsulated the entire album up until this point. The instrumentation here is another level above human. The fretless bass runs from Good pulsate under the mechanical sounding drums and frantic tremolo riffs to devastating effect. But perhaps the highlight of the entire track comes just before the six-minute mark with a wonderfully written, blues-inspired guitar solo with a RUSH-esque backing section.
Threads Of Unknowing is the sound of an immensely talented and like-minded group of musicians who are writing at the very peak of their creative power. This is an album that is as brutally heavy as it is expansive and well thought out, without ever venturing into the mind-numbing show-pony brand of technical music that can be so uninspired. Rather this is an exciting demonstration of how to write complex death metal and include a spattering of all of the other things metal fans would want to hear and it is done seamlessly. Miss this album at your own peril.
Rating: 9/10
Threads Of Unknowing is set for release on April 14th via 20 Buck Spin.
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