Album Review: VoidCeremony - Abditum
Reviewed by Sam Jones
A new VoidCeremony record is a wonderful occasion, the band have really been on a roll from the word go. The band formed originally in 2010 as Antiquity, breaking up come 2012 but reforming as Portalgeist; this lasted just a year where as of 2013 onwards the band have gone by the name of VoidCeremony, hailing out of California, United States, and in recent years have prospered wildly after a successive run of records. Releasing numerous EPs in the run up to their first album you can see the band’s evolution, morphing and coalescing into their spatial and avant-garde style of progressive death metal. Their 2020 debut record Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel was a crucial success for the band, already signed on to 20 Buck Spin, and immediately proving that decision with widespread acclaim. With their follow-up release Threads Of Unknowing out three years later VoidCeremony only refined and pushed further upon the songwriting they’d established within their domain, and with November 14th looming 20 Buck Spin back the band yet again with their third full length: Abditum. This time the roster is shaken up as drummer Dylan Marks and guitarist Jason McGehee each mark their first album credit as newcomers to the band. VoidCeremony have established themselves a highly competent band a degree above the rank and file of today’s extreme metal, can they make it three for three? How will the new talent onboard shift or take on their signature sound? Let’s find out.
Though VoidCeremony have never shied audiences away from the peculiar aspects of their sound, Abditum really wastes no time in subjecting us to that peculiarity. Off the bat of the introductory piece the band get to work immediately with songwriting that feels familiar and accessible, yet there’s something tucked beneath the surface showing there’s something... wrong here. Its slight, the way riffs possess a downward turn, how they seemingly tread the tightrope but from angles conventional grip would never maintain. The main channel of songwriting is identifiable and allows one to understand the overall direction VoidCeremony move towards, but everything otherwise surrounding it is up for debate as the band throw a flurry of twists and turns your way. The band manage to plant you along a road paved yet as you walk you won’t fail to notice the landscape morph, melt, transfiguring into something you barely decipher. In this manner VoidCeremony don’t plunge you into total madness though you understand it isn’t far away, treading that thin line. Abditum there is a record right on the cusp of breaking loose of its mental faculties.
Continuing on, the riffs feel even more erratic and ridiculous than they’ve ever been. VoidCeremony have been revered for crazy songwriting yet the songwriting performed takes that idea to the next level, where tracks feel to have taken that great leap into the dark where nought is as it should be in the light. Only by tattered threads do the band keep their riffs from losing all semblance of order, yet order remains, enabling us to identify structure and aesthetic as the guitar work forces riffs and freeform sequences to carry on. One could almost feel the riffs are trying to end things, leave it at a point, yet the band simply won’t allow it, creating the crazed, despairing soundscape Abditum purports. It won’t take long to see their songwriting never sits still, not for a moment, however the evolution of riffs feels fluid as if its the changing riff that’s determining how else the rest of the band play, and how the respective track feels by its end. Its likely why these tracks feel so fast, for their continuous evolution keeps us invested and curious how it’ll end for soon the concluding sequences come and you’re left bereft as how that can be. It incites us to go back and, like detectives, figure out how it all functions together.
If VoidCeremony are opting for more unpredictable lines of progressive death metal they’re fulfilling that promise, for giving us tracks where all sanity is departed followed by a quaint instrumental and then a two minute track is not what I expected. Structurally though its a blessing considering the band’s leaning towards stranger soundscapes and songwriting that is happily unhinged; not only will we have some reprieve from their madness but it plants the idea mentally that not every track succeeding the other will be as long a synapse collapse. The band will still assault your very psyche but the durations of such assaults are going to differ; it’s great to see this for it means audiences won’t view this record, upon repeat plays, as something especially taxing on them. Songwriting such as this, where nothing is nailed to the ground, can be more challenging to digest than contemporary writing but by providing clear variation it breaks up the task of experiencing Abditum into easier chunks.
You’ll find that Abditum is an especially fast album, perhaps the quickest VoidCeremony have yet delivered. Now i don’t believe the actual tempo they play with is especially greater herein but i do think they have a great amount of material this time round and its the rapidity at which its fired that gives Abditum its breakneck pace. The inclusion of aforementioned shorter tracks, and the insistence on prominent album structure, also makes for a thankfully accessible release that allows one to look back and marvel how quickly Abditum has gone by. This is also bolstered by the drums which employ blast beats and bass drums like they haven’t been paid and food is needed on the table; the band aren’t looking to slow down anytime and neither are the drums tracks, imbuing Abditum with energy and avant-garde styled patterns that leave predictability to the wind. Before you know it, the record is drawing to its close and, as we’ve covered, you’ll be wondering as how that’s possible when you know an entire record has passed by. VoidCeremony aren’t relaxing their pace for anyone and with this reclusive songwriting, they’re not about to explain themselves any time soon.
In conclusion, if VoidCeremony have been dipping their toes into cerebral, ionospheric songwriting where with each release they’ve been tilting their heads ever higher, Abditum is the record that sees them completely leave earth entirely. Even compared to their last records Abditum is the one that will challenge even the most ardent progressive death metal fans, especially if VoidCeremony has been on their radars in previous years. I think many will perceive Abditum as an enigma recognising how fast it went by but assured there was something they missed, something that will give them insight into this opus and thus grant them all the answers underpinning what makes Abditum tick. The speed at which VoidCeremony also doesn’t feel like its being applied to mask something latent either, its part of the experience, as the band hurl such quantities of undefined, unexplained atmosphere your way and leave you to work it out on your own accord. Yet their songwriting makes room enough for you to comprehend the insanity; whether you figure it out is determined by how ardently you magnify VoidCeremony’s performance in scrutiny. This was a fun listen for it sees a band completely shake to earth the last limiters chaining them to contemporary listening experiences. I think Abditum will enthral and perplex an equal number of people and is surely VoidCeremony’s most layered work to date.
