Album Review: VoidCeremony - Threads Of Unknowing
Reviewed by Sam Jones
When it comes to the newer force of death metal, there are fewer names more notable than that of VoidCeremony who, in a limited time, have sprung up as one of death metal’s premier, infant voices. Formed in 2013, out of California, United States, the band’s prominent rise wasn’t accomplished overnight; releasing yearly EPs from 2014 – 2017. But it would be another three years before their first full length work would see the light of day, but released no less than through 20 Buck Spin, titled Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel in 2020. The pandemic may have brought difficulties but death metal was in high abundant quality to alleviate those days. Now, another three years on, Threads Of Unknowing seeks to pick up the trail that their prior work left us with. Let’s see what VoidCeremony have cooked up in that time.
I remember when VoidCeremony were first announced onto 20 Buck Spin’s roster and released their first record back then, if anything I’d argue their sound has only become more impactful, truly furthering the Morbid Angel vibes we were introduced to first time round. While the band employ ambient keys throughout the record, prevailing through the background too, the band’s overall approach doesn’t falter from the clenched punch we’ve become accustomed to receiving from them. Whether the band are moving fast or slow, their songwriting is always ensuring our attention is front and centre for every lick and twist they send us down. Much of that is down to the band’s technical proficiency not necessarily in individual ability but, how the songwriting never feels to sit on a straight line. Were we to peer beneath the songwriting, we’d see the band’s flow is perturbed, misshapen and has numerous sudden bends and meanders that keep things far from predictable.
The band’s guitar attack may feel as bold and outlined as any graphic art, harbouring visceral impact, yet it’s the bass I feel that holds the record together. I don’t believe the guitar work would feel as strong of a strike had the bass not wielded such an underlying presence. The bass work present is the kind that refuses to sit idly by in the shadows whilst the rest of the instrumentation takes the spotlight; the bass is just as active and fluidic than anything else the band may otherwise conjure. However, when it falls into line with the riffs, it elevates the band’s assault tenfold and helps to propagate that signature Morbid Angel aesthetic where every note and chord comes down with the mass of solid concrete. It’s good to note additionally, how the bass moves in and out of the songwriting as well whereby the band allow the bass to become the purpose of our attention.
Perhaps one of the more notable aspects regarding this record is the band’s impeccable control of pacing. We’re given six tracks for the full duration of this album and therefore there’s going to be a mix between faster and slower periods; happily the band manage to achieve precisely that but, what’s more, is their capacity to keep everything really grounded where our attention feels targeted the most. The band have managed to tweak their songwriting here and there, pending on the song they’re working with, to always hold you at the right pace by which they may most effectively dish out the devastation you’ve come here for. While the album is a quick listen due to its short track listing, the band are able to make every track as momentous as the one preceding it; it only heightens the importance every track is given in conjunction with the album’s journey from start to finish. With every notable twist and lick the band craft, it carries weight and purpose to the songwriting as a whole. As a result, the record possesses greater cause for replay ability since the audience understands their time is far from being wasted.
If the band turned heads upon their first record, Threads Of Unknowing is bound to snap heads a full 180 degree. The band take their erratic, shifting style of songwriting and push it even further beyond, establishing themselves as a band where nothing may be left off the table and all things are possible. The drums, riffs, bass etc merge together to create a seamlessly coordinated yet mindless barrage of devastation that will see you headbanging in all directions owing to a disparagement of direction. While this may seem counterproductive, it sees VoidCeremony dipping themselves more than a touch in progressive territory whereby very little is given the opportunity to sit still before the band undergo the next sequence of their songwriting for any given song. While there is much going on that gets our attention fixed on the performance, it’s never so total a whirlwind that we lose our bearings. It’s the equivalent of watching a grand downpour from inside your home, you can see the beauty of such a deluge without becoming needlessly drenched.
In conclusion, this is an album that closes things out with an eleven minute epic and never once feels overlong or lacking substance. It’s been a few years since VoidCeremony thrust themselves upon the metal world, but in that short time the band have really become a mainstay of the death metal underground. What they started to infer, feels so much more fleshed out and realised, now utilising a much more visceral guitar tone that sees the weight of every chord and solo strike with outlined force. Perhaps most of all, is how effective the erratically progressive variation of songwriting the band use has been for this record. While the band’s previous work cemented them amongst the next wave of death medal, Threads Of Unknowing is the record that establishes VoidCeremony as a particular force unto their own identity. They’ve sought out their own niche and done just that. A third instalment with this sound would be more than welcomed.
