Void Rot’s debut full-length album, “Descending Pillars,” is an abysmal vision into a world of bludgeoning death metal shrouded in a blanket of unfathomable darkness. The unforgiving nature of this album is extremely impressive, along with the haunting atmospheric elements woven into the explosive instrumental carnage.
Hailing from Minneapolis, MN, Void Rot sets out to unleash devastation upon the metal world with their first full-length release. Their colossal sounding mixture of old school primitive death metal and bone chilling doom is what makes this album a rather unique and fascinating listening experience. Void Rot definitely proves to be a band that does not slap together generically written songs, because when you listen to the entire album you hear a vicious synergy and the music seamlessly transitions between each song.
The opening song, “Descending Pillars,” builds up this monumental dominion full of fearsome sounding riffs and grotesque death growls. Each instrument delivers a devastating blow to the overall musical landscape, thus creating an apocalyptic wasteland of horrifying death doom. On the next two tracks, “Upheaval” and “Liminal Forms,” the band keeps painting this bleak and lightless sounding realm where the drums and guitar parts become almost hypnotic as the music evolves. You actually feel possessed by the sheer brutality of all the instruments, as well as the hellish sounding vocals.
I feel that the second half of the album actually sounded more catastrophic at times and the band’s dynamic mindset really stood out. The best example would be the track, “The Weight of a Thousand Suns,” which is a short instrumental piece that lulls you through this calming hypnotic atmosphere. Eventually as the composition ends the band unleashes a cosmic explosion of vitriolic aggression, which then takes you into the final song off of the album. “Monolith (Descending Pillars Pt. II),” finishes the album up with a harrowing atmosphere of unfathomable death doom. The song is arguably one of the strongest sounding conclusions to an album I have heard this year.
Void Rot proves to be a band that does not wish to waste an opportunity when recording a monstrous sounding album. “Descending Pillars,” is going to come crashing down upon the metal community like a landslide of unspeakable destruction. Again, these musicians understood how to write an album from start to finish, because once you hear the first song, there is no escaping the hellacious sounding void that begins to surround you as the album progresses. Escape shall be futile once the pillars Void Rot has constructed begin to descend upon you ears!
Great review as always Robby.
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