Album Review: Voices - Breaking The Trauma Bond
Reviewed by Robbie Maguire
Arising from the dark murky shadows and grimier reaches of London, Voices have taken all that the ever engulfing yet beautiful city impacts on them to bolster their dark expansive musical palette. What a richly diverse palette indeed it is with which Voices use to orchestrate the all-embracing ‘Breaking the Trauma Bond’. As the fragility of the cinematic stirring intro to ‘A Field Without Crows’ is quickly beaten away the immense drums usher in a mesmerically tight rhythmic brilliance revealing Voices unique extreme metal artistry.
Therein lies what Voices execute so effortlessly precisely over the next hour. Their ability to mix the moving soundscapes with sensory assaulting blackened metal adds so much depth and texture. Continually peppering ‘Breaking the Trauma Bond’ with an ever-changing contrast the quintet ensures ones focus is wholly retained throughout. ‘An Audience of Mannequins’ is a belligerent frenetically charged death metal bruiser whilst ‘Lilacs in Between’ which follows highlights the range with which Voices work and deliver their craft.
A post punk heartbeat shines through as it pulses and twists with its increasing heaviness sucking you right in. Both the drums (those fills!) and piano / keys are sublime with the vocals shifting from the clean if somewhat vulnerable soulful croon to the vicious again adding to the ever-changing texture. Atmospherically this feels dark and though at times chaotic it is razor sharp as in the caustic thrashy riffage of ‘Whispers’ which delivers an instant industrial knockout blow.
Shifting through sonic soundscapes this ever-evolving album continues to surprise. From the mainstream bothering alternative allure of ‘Methods of Madness’ with its looping chorus to the heart wrenchingly gothic and 80’s infused ‘She Speaks to him in a Dream’ Voices nail that an innovative, progressive, and exciting extreme metal album doesn’t need to be just sheer bluster and have a bludgeoning intensity to be affective. Sure, there are the blast beats and growls present within the brutality but there is so much more. Voices employ a bold and brave approach. An all-encompassing one which makes for a wholly immersive experience which at times is as distressing and uneasy as it is surprisingly uplifting. In ‘Breaking the Trauma Bond’ Voices have combined all the creative parts of their dark musical palette and produced a rich, dark and punishingly vibrant album. An album that arouses many emotions and offers a ridiculously easy, enriching and rewarding listen.
