Entry 1639 - Void of Silence - Human Antithesis

Style: blackened doom metal

Thoughts: Void of Silence. A band that I got into right when this album released years ago. I was recently turned into a fan of Primordial and found these guys as a "side project" of AA Nemtheanga. I enjoyed his rough and emotive voice in Primordial so I wanted some more; hence Void of Silence.

Initial curiosity aside, I would not have looked further into this band if the music was sub-par. While the first two albums from the band are not exactly to my tastes, the third - Human Antithesis is quite good. It features six songs ranging from a minute long to well over twenty minutes. 

The shorter tracks are small interludes between the real meat of the album. There are four main songs on here and they are the type of music that feels more like a musical novel than they do an outright song. They have an introduction, rising action, a huge climax, and then falling action - the typical tropes of a novel. 

Lets look at the title track as a prime example of this. The song (and album) start out with a near dark ambient section with someone speaking in Italian with some industrial backing noises. Slowly keyboards come in before the rest of the band. A slow dirge-like speed is adopted by the album as more and more layers are piled on top. Keyboards, guitars, vocals - they all come in layers. 

Eventually the song takes on its final structure and the main riff is formed from the ether. From here the song twists and turns through spoken word, dark ambient, black metal, funeral doom, and everything in between before finally coming to its dramatic conclusion around the 18 minute mark. The story told is that of humanity relying on the divine for guidance when in reality we need no such guidance ourselves. It's a musical novel. It's a thesis. It's fantastic.

This is how the album is formed. Four musical journeys and two small interludes. It's a series of small musical novels that beg me to finish the album every time I put it on.  Alas t his is the only album with Nemtheanga on it, and for a long time I thought this would be the final album from the band. Fortunately it was not, and even though Mr. Alan is no longer in the band, I still enjoy the music they put out past his involvement. 

I find albums like this to be hit or miss. The danger with writing long songs is that they have to justify that time - the must respect the listener in order to be engaging. With each of the songs on Human Antithesis the band has realized this and written songs that not only are good to listen to in isolation, but also as a whole album.