ALBUM REVIEW: The Rituals Of Resilience – Voidfallen
Young, hungry and wanting a sizeable chunk of the melodic death metal pie, VOIDFALLEN are intent on slamming through the gears and reaching new heights with each passing release. Formed as a two-man project in 2019, the Finns expanded to a quartet and garnered very positive reviews from their 2021 debut The Atlas Of Spiritual Apocalypse. Their number is now five, with former live vocalist Lauri Honkola joining on a permanent basis in the summer of 2022, and they’ve also found a home in Noble Demon, who are releasing second album The Rituals Of Resilience on Friday 21st February.
If you ever wanted to hear a band with grand aspirations, just listen to opening track Threads Of Blood, kept hidden from the wider world until now following half the album’s release across 2023 and 2024. The beginning is almost the curtain raiser to a heavy metal fantasy novel, soaring and epic, before Honkola‘s savage pipes come in and smack your senses silly with the force of a baseball bat. It segues into The Original Wound, which leans more into the extreme side than the melodious with more in the way of fast picking than deliberately placed notes, but allows VOIDFALLEN to flesh out their range that little bit more. Tread With The Ghosts is over a year old at this point, but the chugging riffs prove a strong foundation, while the keyboards add an extra layer without being too overpowering – IN FLAMES would be proud – while Starved Of Martyrs predates that and still offers the ,most grandiose of gut punches with its huge choral overtures and infectious groove.
Another key factor in the impact of the album is the production, as the mixing and mastering done by Juhamatti Kauppinen and Mika Jussila respectively is incredible. Whether the band have gone down the epic route with a track such as Pyre Of Vengeance, swung more into death metal territory like on Hymn For The Fallen or blended the two together like on Branding Of Souls, the levels are balanced expertly and, if one wishes to, every instrument can be picked out. The one negative to draw is that the album does begin to outstay its welcome by the time The Mourning Shores arrives to finish the journey off, but herein creates a musical paradox where none of the songs are so far below the rest they wouldn’t have been missed if they hadn’t made the final cut, but as a collective it could have benefitted from one song less.
When all is said and done, however, VOIDFALLEN have planted their flag in the ground with confidence, none of which is unfounded. It’s all too common for those not far removed from the beginning of their careers to be overexuberant and talk the talk without ever walking the walk, but The Rituals Of Resilience has the chops to back up the band’s determination to be the new face of melodic death metal and become the new standard bearers for a much loved genre. You’d do well to check this out.
Rating: 7/10
The Rituals of Resilience is set for release on February 21st via Noble Demon.
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