ALBUM REVIEW: Void – KEN Mode

Sequels are generally better when they’ve been part of the plan from the outset; you know, an actually necessary continuation of a story rather than a quick cash-grab after something that was meant to stand alone ends up doing better than expected. Given the kind of music KEN MODE play, there was never really any risk of Void being the latter; the new album from the Canadian noise rockers was written and produced and recorded at the same time as last year’s outstanding Null and it arrives just one day off the first anniversary of the release of that record not only to complete a whole but also to stand firmly and impressively enough on its own.

First, a quick recap: Null was a bleak, suffocating, sludgy, chaotic industrial hellscape that saw the band make extensive use of the multi-instrumental talents of newly-recruited full-time member Kathryn Kerr to add even more layers to their already hugely imposing sound, and it is no disappointment at all to report that Void does something fairly similar. But it is different; guitarist/vocalist Jesse Matthewson claims that it conveys “the overwhelming sadness and disappointment of 2021, after the initial crazed shock of 2020” – where Null was perhaps more of an angry, violent record, as though it might somehow be able to fight its way out, Void accepts defeat. There is no happy ending, no last-minute glimmer of hope, just a pervasive, all-encompassing despondency that stays with you long after its 40-minute runtime has ended.

As before, one of the most impactful means through which KEN MODE achieve such a lingering sense of despair lies in Matthewson’s talent for writing and repeating just the bleakest hooks you’ll ever hear. In opener The Shrike, it’s “There is no escape from our mistakes”; in the eight-minute These Wires, it’s “Why would anything feel right again?”; and in penultimate track He Was A Good Man, He Was A Taxpayer, it’s the truly hopeless “Now that I’m gone, you’re free”. There are honestly too many of these to name, and whether shouted, spoken or even half-sung, they ultimately make Void deeply memorable in a genre where many others seem happy enough just to make you feel miserable for half an hour only to swiftly fall out of your head as soon as they’ve finished.

At this point there may be some question as to just how different Void really is from Null; at the end of the day these records are linked for the very reason that they do evoke a closely related set of feelings. Anxiety and depression, anger and sadness, losing and loss – so often these things bleed into one another, so it makes sense that these albums do too, and if anything that’s part of the genius of them. Sonically as well there are broad similarities between both; the lashings of hardcore in tracks like Painless and I Cannot recall like-minded cuts on Null, for example, while the aforementioned These Wires and the similarly lengthy A Reluctance Of Being nail the more dynamic fare that made Lost Grip such a highlight on that record in particular.

Elsewhere the album sets itself apart more clearly; fourth track We’re Small Enough is completely instrumental and touches on something of a CULT OF LUNA-esque synthy sci-fi post-metal vibe that reappears later on the aforementioned He Was A Good Man, He Was A Taxpayer. And then there’s the closer Not Today, Old Friend; perhaps the weirdest and most off-kilter track of all 16 across the entire two album set, it shows – again – just how supremely unsettling KEN MODE can be even with most of the noisiest aspects of their sound dialled way down. The instrumental is sparse and hypnotic, with sporadic passages of piano and sax creating a sort of demented noir feeling as Matthewson repeats the bafflingly creepy “That you’ve been thanked, whether or not I even remember your name”. As the final say in the whole Null/Void experience, it is perfectly and unforgettably disturbing.

Ultimately, Null and Void have been reviewed separately because they were released separately, and while they do stand alone as the band intended them to, as a pair they add up to what is unquestionably KEN MODE’s best work. It’s a completely enrapturing journey into panic and terror and desolation and darkness and despair, and while you may want a bath after listening to either or both of these records, it will take far more than that to wash off the marks they leave on you.

Rating: 8/10

Void is set for release on September 22nd via Artoffact Records.

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