EP Review: Voidlurker - Loathe For Life
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
I quick delve into the darkest depths of my ever-decreasing grey matter to realise where I saw the name Voidlurker. It was at the inaugural North West Doomfest in 2024, and they were playing at The Saddle in Chester. I remembered their loud, abrasive and heavy as hell music, so I was intrigued to review their latest offering, “Loathe for Life”.
The Brummie trio are part of the impressive APF Records roster, and this new album continues their journey into everything that’s mean and moody about sludge-doom. There are only 4 songs, but my word, they pack an awful lot into them. From the opening growl of “Green Ghost” you are greeted by a sound that is pure evil, accompanied by the filthy vocals of Brad Thomas, his voice stretched beyond belief with guttural splurges, to accompany the fuzzed out tunes of his guitar and the rumbling bass of Andrew Rennie.
It's everything that you want to hear on a bright sunny afternoon, (which it is as I write this). The little riff around four minutes is a sign of intent, the energy switch is flicked onto ten, and they fire away once again. The war inside your head continues with the album title track “Loathe for Life”. Again, they are not trying to re-write anything new but merely showing what the next generation of doom bands are producing. I admire the intensity and the tempo of this track, and I can imagine the drum skins of Mitch Bishop never get a chance to recover due to the constant pummelling they receive.
Their music does sound like your head is slowly being crushed in a tightened vice, as you are being branded with a hot poker, but it’s damn good fun to listen to. Just when you think the second track is finished, they tease and play with their instruments further, as if they are leading you astray into their sinister world. “S.O.B.” has a much more fuzzed out sound from the off, with the riff reverberating around your head like a fly you want to swat away. It’s darker and moodier than the others, if that’s possible, and they’ve taken the music down several levels closer to hell. It’s got that quintessential doom atmosphere roped around the music, all three playing in unison, to unleash their full fury on the audience. And when that riff hits again later, you can sense the devilishly wicked smirks etched across their faces.
The joyous times are ended by the brutal “Time Heals Nothing” which starts with the wonderful line “I believe in evil because…. let me tell me why” and you are hit with a barrage of noise that is damaging enough to unblock the biggest fatberg you can find. It crushes your very soul from beginning to end, whilst leaving you glowing inside, like you’ve eaten a massive bowl of Ready Brek (reference for the older people there). The fours songs carry weight, substance and fortitude and solidifies their position in the upper tiers of British sludge metal bands.
