Void of Hope represents the coldness of Finland.
Tommi Tuhkala (Arctora, Ondfødt, Outlaw, Spell of Torment, live for Moonlight Sorcery), Erkka Raiskio (Moonlight Sorcery) and Owe Inborr (Dispyt, Ondfødt, ex-Gangrened) composed and recorded their debut album, Proof of Existence, in five days. It was released with the help of label Avantgarde Music.
While it starts off slowly enough, Gift Of Life takes a completely different approach when the plaintive tortured vocal parts come into play, definitely tinting the sound with a gripping DSBM. The rhythm also becomes more virulent, but then calms down to hypnotize us once again, sinking in with a keyboard until the eponymous track, Proof Of Existence, which takes up this raw aspect with an abrasive sound, but also with drums that are initially a little more motivating. The rhythm breaks up and calms down, letting ominous leads enter the scene to ease the return of violence and vocals into the surge, but it’s back into melancholy that we move on to The Hollow Hymn and its soothing darkness. It eventually ignites, while remaining ethereal, but unsurprisingly it’s with the arrival of the screams that it transforms into a veritable ocean of uncontrollable fury, but like all oceans there are brief moments of calm which only serve to reinforce the power of the next wave of violence. The track is very long, but it eventually joins Inner Peace, a short interlude with a terrifying sample that sends the gentle piano keys into a frenzy, before giving way to T.E.T.L., where rage resurfaces at full speed. Riffs and vocals combine to offer intoxicating dissonance, but also a moment when softness and lightness answer each other before disappearing for good in favor of the thick saturation that leads us to Decaying Years, which begins with a duet between piano and drums. A sample breaks the dynamics, before the simple, stripped-down approach to each instrument is confirmed at every turn, lulling us imperceptibly closer to the end.
Void of Hope‘s story is reminiscent of those clichés from the early ’90s, when Black Metal was winning over popular legends, but it’s impossible not to be overwhelmed by their creation, Proof of Existence. The album is as natural as the time it took to create it would suggest.
90/100