Artist: VoidCeremony
Country: USA
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD
Year: 2025
Although there is plenty of good Death Metal out there, it is difficult to argue that the genre is not suffering from a serious case of metal fatigue. Not only does the majority sound very similar, the quality is also appalling. A bit of distortion and a deep grunt does not make Death Metal; it seems as if everyone has collectively forgotten how to compose suspenseful music or how to write a decent song. In recent months, I have been particularly charmed by bands that are making the genre a little dangerous again, evil and heavy. I have enjoyed bands such as Concrete Winds, Abhorration, Imprecation and Abominator. However, at the other end of the Death Metal spectrum, there are also bands that take a completely different approach. For example, I have been a fan of VoidCeremony from the very beginning, a band that does not seek its conviction in speed or toxic malice, but in complex song structures and genuine unpredictability.
The band’s previous album, ‘Threads Of Unknowing’ (2023) was definitely their best effort so far, It not only demonstrated solid songwriting, but above all the incredible progress the band had made as a collective on a technical level. From the first demo tape in 2024 (later released on 7″ by Blood Harvest), it was already clear that VoidCeremony was a band that would not go down the well-trodden Incantation path, but it soon became apparent that with each release, the band raised the bar of complexity. Especially from 2020 onwards, with the arrival of bassist Damon Good (StarGazer, Cauldron Black Ram and Mournful Congregation), the musicality skyrocketed.
VoidCeremony’s latest offering, ‘Abditum’, is living proof of this. Although the previous two albums barely reached half an hour, this latest work is even shorter, but in that relatively short playing time (especially if we subtract the intro, interlude and outro), the band manages to impress like never before. Again the music is basically a head-on collision of Morbid Angel and Immolation on the one hand and Obliveon, Cynic and later Atheist on the other. The jazzy leads and constant changes in rhythm are something you have to appreciate, because they form the backbone of the album, even more so than on “Threads Of Unknowing”. But they also form the basis on which Damon Good’s inimitable bass lines navigate like a flock of starlings on a beautiful summer evening.
Some will say that it is restless and nervous music that actually has little to do with Death Metal, while others will swoon away in the many deep layers of the music. Although I belong to the latter group, it is undeniable that VoidCeremony shows its best side on ‘Abditum’ and elevates Death Metal to a higher art form. Both in terms of technical skill and songwriting, the album can be considered a blueprint for more complex Death Metal. Whereas many bands in this style seem to focus primarily on stringing together as many riffs and rhythm changes as possible, here we have a set of tracks that genuinely deserve to be called “songs”. In short, ‘Abditum’ is a phenomenal record!
