Voidceremony - Threads Of Unknowing LP

Unlike other genres of music I don't really have any way to articulate why a great deal of Death Metal is "nice enough" and then occasionally a record hits a nerve that connects my putrid innards to my tender soul. Voidceremony has me hooked!

While there's no guitar synth I can't help but bring up 'Spheres', the polarising, jazz fusion embracing album by Pestilence. This is mostly because of the fusion level of dexterity, as the angst of the 90s is gone and replaced with a dark, metaphysical atmosphere. While the fretless bass bass has hindered my enjoyment of many-a later Lou Reed records, I love the bloody thing here! Five upside down stars out of five. - Nic

Upon the release of the first full length album ‘Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel’ it was instantly revealed that VoidCeremony were treading a path few walk. The album proved that Death Metal can be performed with the gliding, controlled chaos and smooth fluidity of a jazz quartet, while still leaving the listener holed up in a dungeon, low on HP, out of spells, and surrounded by deadly demons.

‘Threads of Unknowing” is a journey which resurrects concepts on earlier display and summons evermore progressive and technical compositions. Mastermind and guitarist/vocalist Garrett Johnson and guitar virtuoso Phil Tougas (Atramentus, Chthe’ilist, Worm, First Fragment) share both vocals and lead guitar duties here, while bass god Damon Good weaves both fretted and fretless bass mastery and drummer Charlie Koryn encompasses not only speed and brutality, but a fine mix of precision and improvisation from jazz fusion. The end result is VoidCeremony and their signature sound: Time-melting Death Black Fusion.

With an apt cover painting representing the lyrical and philosophical vision of an ancient and forgotten future, VoidCeremony itself seems to be operating on an alternate Death Metal timeline that once made itself known, but only briefly, and was soon left behind for more commercial appeal. Yet the portal has been re-opened and the merging of these boundless possibilities and directions are now being brought forth directly once again.