What’s amazing about some drone is that while the formula for writing it is incredibly simple, many bands still seem to **** it up. It’s spectacular when one band manages to create a strong drone album or a series of them, but what’s even more amazing is when a completely obscure band releases an album with a very unique and captivating sound of it’s own. This has got to be the big surprise of the year, and it was an instant relief to me seeing as I wasn’t all too impressed with 2010 so far. These guys obviously take themselves seriously, and put a lot of effort into their music, reputation and even presentation.
Every part of the album works in harmony. At times the bass is distinguishable from the guitars, which are not only a brutally crushing fuzz-infested mess, but also clean and eerie on occasion too. The drumming is brilliant and jazzy, while still not taking up too much space as to make you forget you’re listening to drone. The first moment the drums slowly sped up I was anticipating a downward spiral in quality from there on out, but each blast from them delivered a mount of agony on the already tormenting wall of pain it was nailed too. Finally we are introduced to the vocals. And boy, do they put most hardcore vocals to shame. By midway through the second track you might think you’re listening to a crushing doomy stoner metal album but it still manages to keep a sinister drone attitude all the same. A piano also makes it’s way into the ensemble of drone and is accompanied by clean chanting until we reach the third track. At last we are led out by another stellar track resulting in an almost perfect release by 2010 which is certainly a contender for “Album of the Year” in my book.
Vøid gives us a slab of raw emotion in the template of drone doom. If you have fifty minutes of spare time, spend it listening to this. V?id will almost certainly gain attention in the coming years as they’ve released an epic and monolithic debut, which will not be forgotten by any doomed bastard who hears it.