From virtually the beginning of their career Seattle-based Voidthrone have devoted themselves to creating unsettling and unnerving musical experiences. As they said at the time of their last release (2018’s Kur), “It is our intent to leave both listener and performer drained. Within this receptive exhaustion, we leave a spark — a seed of discontent that rejects normality. A hunger engendered for the other side of the veil. Beyond which — an absolute darkness….”
Those words came back to us after exposure to the discomforting sonic visions housed within Voidthrone‘s new album Metaphysical Degradation, now set for release in October. They preview what it holds in store with these words:
“The fevered revelations of change, in music form. Frenetic stories of warfare, sacrifice, consciousness, duality, infection, theism. Six songs laden with aural sickness, with secret messages to subvert the program running on your wetware. Bathe in the occult thrumming threaded through this oceanic blasphemy.”
As proven by the album’s opening track and first single, “Pyrrhic Victory“, Voidthrone have chosen a diabolically confrontational means of wiping clean the slate of their listeners’ minds and preparing them for something else, something other. As they’ve done before, but done here in spades, they’ve intertwined death and black metal to create a disorienting, disturbing, and even terrifying experience, combining head-spinning intricacy, unsettling dissonance, and raw emotional intensity. Continue reading »
