Review Summary: VoidCeremony are back with their best album to date and boy is it one hell of a ride.
The world of technical death metal is a strange one, indeed. Bands like Gorguts, Death, Atheist and Cynic, among others, perfected the sound in the late-80s/early-90s, mixing together mind-bending, inhuman riffage, mechanical drumming and basslines so low and twangy they'd make you want to headbang until your head fell off your shoulders. Like death metal in general, tech death hit a sterile point where all the mastery of riffs went out the window and it was all about just how fast you could play. That mindset watered down what the sound was meant to be in the first place. Thankfully, bands like VoidCeremony are around to set the record straight on what real technical death metal should sound like these days.
Abditum is the band's third full-length album and it's definitely their most spastic release yet. The first thing that's noticeably different from the previous albums is that
Abditum really focuses on outer space-like production a la early Cynic and Atheist. The actual sound of the riffage is ethereal and transformative yet still maintaining a brutality that will cave your entire skull in. Another thing that differs from the previous album is there's a huge dissonant black metal influence here with chaotic pinch harmonics and a blizzard of blasts that reminds me of the topsy-turvy sound of Portal. Gurgled vocals echo in the background that sounds like a ghost calling out from the afterlife. The cosmic vibes combined with the dissonance of the riffs really makes for a head-spinning experience. You have to give the guys credit for creating such a dreamlike, solar atmosphere while blending some of the muddiest riffage you'll hear nowadays.
This album may be less than 30 minutes long, but it is the perfect length for this type of music. Straight, to-the-point and as headbangable as ever. Tracks like ‘Veracious Duality’, ‘Failure of Ancient Wisdoms’ and ‘Gnosis of Ambivalence’ are longer, full of ethereal solos and grotesque prog riffage while maintaining that clean yet nightmarish atmosphere. The riffs can be a bit noodly at times, especially by VoidCeremony standards, but it never gets cheesy or uncomfortable in any way. There is also a pretty noticeable Incantation-esque death doom influence at times in the muddiness of the riffs.
The intro/outro set the table for the cosmic feelings that
Abditum brings forth and the shorter tracks even that out with an onslaught of pure carnage and devastation. While the album is short in length, a track like ‘Silence Which Ceases All Minds’ doesn't need a lot of time to get its twisted, freakish point across. As I mentioned earlier, the solos on this album are absolutely to die for. VoidCeremony doesn't fall into the trap of being technical just for the sake of it, they lean into it fully and use the speed in an almost scientific way. The drumming is so on point that you'd think it was a drum machine, but no, it's Mr. Dylan Marks beating the hell out of his kit like Evander Holyfield smashing his opponent to dust.
To set the record straight, I obviously think that
Abditum is the guys’ most accomplished work to date. The production here really puts it over the top and the atmosphere is just as important as the riffs. As I said before, every riff has a point to it, there's zero mindless wank that just shows off technicality and speed, it's just pure brutality from beginning to end. If you want to hear a modern tech death masterpiece, look no further than
Abditum, my friends.
