Style: Synthwave mixed with black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Put on the corpse paint while driving through neon drenched streets
Thoughts: Fusing two genres can be a razor's edge. Sometimes it works perfectly, other times it fails miserably. With Abstract Void those two genres are black metal and synthwave. The results are interesting, but I'm not sure if it's interesting good or interesting bad. Maybe over the course of writing this I'll figure that out.
This is an interesting record for me. Synthwave is a genre that I have a tentative relationship with at best. When it's good it's exceptional, but there are very few artists out there that I would put into that categorization. Black metal on the other hand is my favorite genre, and my tolerance for less than perfection is higher than it is with most other genres.
So how do they fare when they are smashed together like an atomic collider? Well, you get synthwave synths with black metal guitars and vocals. That's pretty much what this album is, synthwave for most of the album, but then there will be bursts of blast beats and guitars to back up the synths. It doesn't sound too original but at the same time I can't think of another band/project that does this to this extent.
Sure there are synthwave bands that work in metal from time to time, or even ones that are a full on fusion band. Normally though these bands fuse with thrash or death metal... never black metal. Abstract Void really is alone in this field.
That said, is it good? I think it's tolerable. The synthwave is standard run of the mill music, while the black metal is about as generic as you can get. Yet somehow with these two mixed together they become a little bit more than the sum of their parts. Whereas normally either one of these would be an easy pass if it was just synthwave, or just black metal... here it's something a bit more.
The music is a bit more compelling. It has a bit more life to it. It keeps my attention a bit longer. It feels a little fresher. All these things add up to not just a tolerable album, but maybe even a decent one. The fact that it's thirty minutes long also works in it's favor. It never overstays its welcome with the short play time. I would much rather play the record over again than be thinking it's time to move on completely.
I still have strong views on both genres of music, but here I think I'll let both of them slack just a bit. Maybe this is something I should learn to do a bit more: take things just a little bit less seriously. I think I need to sit back and enjoy things for what they are more often.
Written April 22nd 2024
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