American Death-Doom Metallers VOID ROT are back to follow their EP and a split with a debut full length album. Out on September 11th via Everlasting Spew Records and Sentient Ruin Laboratories.
Dreary guitars reverberate into existence with an ambience so huge that it is easy to sink into this record from the very onset. The gritty riffs come in with dissonance and an eerie vibrancy to build upon, which they do with pounding drums and bleak layers of guitar. Contorting, the album twists further into awakening with monstrously hit chords and crashing cymbal cascades that permeate the air with a foggy darkness. Guttural vocals launch us into a rupturing spew of cavernously doomy Death Metal magnificence, rife with spectral qualities that lurk in the nuances of the music. Disturbing and chilling, Void Rot are set to make a strong impact, which judging by this records beginnings, they certainly shall.
Dripping in an ichorous slime, the crushing rhythm section and drums hit with ferocity while melodic leads twists and spew forth from wounds in the low end, springing a convulsive and otherworldly sound into the mix. This claustrophobic and tense instrumentation is met by daunting, snarling vocals that match the music to perfection. With a pungent, dark aroma to the Death Metal that is tastefully creepy yet no less barbaric or fierce, this is the kind of Death Doom that is unfathomably murky. Think Krypts, Spectral Voice or early Sentenced for a good comparison of how foreboding and haunting this sound is. Visceral hooks come and go along with warped dissonance in a way that feels both precise and yet chaotic. Masterful songwriting is required to keep the mix of hypnosis and volatility which we see in abundance here.
Pounding forth the ectoplasmic screech of rivetingly gruesome Death Metal keeps its grip on you with such strong progression in the songwriting and delivery that concocts an odious storm of abyssal horrors. Lurching and crawling into charnel passages before opening yawning portals to horrific other worlds, there is a vitriol in the performance that delivers such constraining music gorgeously. While Doom Metal can add tons of atmosphere to Death Metal, it can also render it a bit less impactful sometimes. This is thankfully not the case, with this record falling into the category of piercing and unhinged darkness being conjured to the Death Metal which retains its savagery so clearly. Throughout the album things only become more twisted, haunting and demonic with no remorse in the estranged extremity that is delivered.
An absolutely phenomenal debut album of Death-Doom Metal mastery. With all of the creepiness and brutality one could hope for from the genre in under 40 minutes, Void Rot will dissolve your sanity and rebuilt it in their own image. Allow the daunting hypnoses of “Descending Pillars” to fulfil your Death-Doom needs. -9/10
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