ALBUM REVIEW: Dance Of The Undesirables – Voidgazer

St Louis’ VOIDGAZER have returned with their debut full length, Dance Of The Undesirables, which follows their 2016 EP, Years Of Exile. Now back on track with a new vocalist, this extreme metal band meld progressive experimentation with traditional heavy metal melodies for banger after banger of chaotic fun. 

The band’s mission statement appears to be having as much fun as possible, whilst still being as brutal as they can. A prime example of this is the second track, Expectations Management. Here, near-GOJIRA levels of groove and prog abound before the song evolves seamlessly into a 70s-style face melting solo. This is a band who know their music history and aren’t afraid to mix things together to see what happens.

Title track Dance Of The Undesirables begins with an almost speed metal riff and relentless drumming, lead by Omar Olivares II’s guttural vocals. The guitar solos this time round, by Austin Rakey, sound euphoric and frantic, racing ahead in the upper register. Halfway through, the song once again devolves into 70s grooves and laid back fun. It’s a trick they’ve pulled before, however, and whilst they do pull it off each time, one wonders if perhaps it’s one they rely on merely in order to justify the length of each song. Blast Equalizer comes off like a MASTODON B-side (in a good way) – the intro alone smacks of some of their best ballad work. 

For a self-released debut, this is a really interesting showcase of what this band can do. There’s plenty of hooks in here, and catchy fun just as much as there is galloping riffage and heavy passages. But in their strength lies their weakness as well – this band’s sound is like a patchwork, and it’s not always stitched together in the most graceful of ways. New passages will often jump out of nowhere, and especially some of the guitar solos sound very out of place. Overall, it’s definitely worth your time, and worth it to get ahead of the curve on a band who surely have an exciting career ahead of them. This is the promising sound of a band finding their feet, and, if they haven’t quite got there yet, this is nevertheless a really exciting start.

Rating: 7/10

Dance Of The Undesirables is set for release on August 27th via self-release.

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