Release Day Roundup: 9/20/24 | Heavy Blog is Heavy

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Void Of Vision – What I’ll Leave Behind (nu/electro-metalcore)

There’s been a bit of a trend in 2024 of previously underperforming Australian metalcore acts suddenly cranking up the heaviness and massively benefiting because of it (see the new In Heart’s Wake album and Make Them Suffer singles). Maybe it’s simply the knock on from Knocked Loose‘s sudden spike in popularity but, either way, I am very much here for it.

I’d previously written of Void of Vision as Australia’s answer to Bad Omens, and in many ways they still are, but between assisting Alpha Wolf in blowing the aforementioned Knocked Loose off stage at last year’s Knotfest and this killer new album, I’m more than ready to make room in my heart for them. Not all of it works. What I’ll Leave Behind is at its best when it pumps up the aggression. Openers “Oblivion” and “Blood for Blood” are absolutely ferocious, being built around the kind of bouncy djent riffs you might expect out of mid-period Monuments and the kind of riffs you wish Architects were still writing.”Empty” also one of the most memorable metalcore choruses I’ve heard in some time while still managing to maintain the heaviness. There’s a sameyness to these tone and construction of these songs, as well as the album’s other, similar outings, but the band hit the nail out of the park more often than not.

It’s when they deviate from such hostilities that things become less convincing. “Neurotic” is a sub-Motionless in White attempt at aping mid-period Marilyn Manson that comes off as overly juvenile even among all the other over angst on display, and there are some occasionally ill-fitting clean vocals that remind me Ocean Grove (another core-adjacent Australian artist who appear to have rediscovered their heaviness after a disastrous indie-fling), with only “Gamma Knife” ever truly able to strike the balance. Upbeat electro-offering “Angel of Darkness” is also a really odd choice for a closer that could probably have benefitted (and benefitted the rest of the record) by being placed a lot earlier in its seemingly haphazard sequencing.*

Despite all its drawbacks, there’s definitely something here, even if What I’ll Leave Behind isn’t exactly it. Between the bulk of What I’ll Leave Behind and the highlights from 2023’s Chronicles, I’m convinced there’s a really good album in here somewhere, or that Void of Vision at least have one in them in future. Either way, the album is currently a steal at $5 AUD on bandcamp, and if you end up liking what you hear, you should probably check out that new Kingdom of Giants EP as well.

 

*It works really well coming in after “Empty”, which should have probably been bumped up the tracklist a bit itself. Bands, please hire me to sequence your albums!

Release Roundup

Abandoncy – Assailable//Agonism (noisy/progressive post-punk)

Aevangelist – Perdition Ekstasis Meta (progressive/industrial black metal)

Alunah – Fever Dream (bluesy prog rock, stoner doom?)

Avernus – Grievances (melowdoom)

Avneya – Road To I (proggy prog-metal)

Black Mold – In The Dirt Of Oblivion (black metal, crust punk)

The Black Pacific – Here Comes Our Wave (alt/skate punk)

Blighted Eye – Agony’s Bespoke (progressive black metal)

Blutgott – Dracul Drakorgoth (death/groove metal)

BornBroken – Am I Invisible (technical groove-metal)

Bragging Rights – Small Gods (progressive groove-death, Pratchett-core?)

Brant Bjork Trio – Once Upon a Time in The Desert (stoner rock)

Charlotte Wessels – The Obsession (absolutely terrible metal)

Coffin Rot – Dreams Of The Disturbed (death metal)

Crimson Sun – Sorrowbreaker (symphonic metal)

Crimson Veil – Hex (progish goth metal)

Danger Zone – Shut Up! (heavy metal, hard rock)

Daufodt – Glitter (punk, hardcore)

Deadspeak – Plagues of Sulfur Bound (death metal/doom)

Death By Gong – Descalator (sludgy alt-rock)

Deathfiend – Dark Rising (blackened death metal)

Deathless Void – The Voluptuous Fire Of Sin (black metal)

Decimals – Mirages (instrumental prog metal)

Defiled – Horror Beyond Horror (death metal)

Demon Head – Through Holes Shine The Stars (weird goth metal)

Dew of Nothing – Black Vortex Of Chaos (blackened death metal)

Die So Fluid – Skin Hunger (goth rock/metal)

Members of Inter Arma, Artificial Brain and Psycroptic.

Dungeon Crawl – Maze Controller (non-shitty D&D metal)

Dust Lord – Teethcutter (sludge doom)

Eagle Twin/The Otolith – Legends Of The Desert: Vol. 4 (sludgy stoner doom)

Eclipse – Megalomanium II (melodic rock/metal)

Endloser Abgrund – Kein Vergeben, Keine Gnade (black metal)

Envy – Eunoia (post-rock/hardcore)

Eradicator – The Paradox (thrash metal)

Esoctrilihum – Döth-Derniàlh (weird/progressive black metal, again)

Eva Can’t – Emisferi (melodic/posty black metal)

Even Flow – Rinascimento (melodic prog rock)

Excruciation – [P]Ain (blackened doom)

Fight Dice – Total Party Kill (shitty D&D metal)

Flashback of Anger – Prisoner of War (melodic metal, prog-power)

The Flying Norsemen – The Flying Norsemen (doomy prog rock)

Frostbite – Relentless Grief (meloblack)

Giant Walker – Silhouettes (progressive alt-metal)

Glacial Tomb – Lightless Expanse (progressive death metal)

Gølgaborg/Hollow – As the Light Slowly Dies (black metal, dsbm)

Gølgaborg/None Shall Remain – A Long and Lonely Path into the Cold Depths of Oblivion (black metal, dsbm)

Groza – Nadir (meloblack)

Heartwind – Heartwind III (heavy/melodic metal)

Herbst – Spiegel (modern/melodic metal)

Homerik – The Circle Of Dead Children (progressive folk/power metal)

Husqwarnah – Purification Through Sacrifice (death metal)

Hydra – ReHydrated (melodic rock, AOR)

Hyver – Fonds de Terroir (black metal)

Invocation – The Archaic Sanctuary (Ritual Body Postures) (blackened death metal)

Kalliste – Crystalgia (post/dsbm, blackgaze)

Kanonenfieber – Die Urkatastrophe (blackened melodeath)

Khost – Many Things Afflict Us Few Things Console Us (industrial, doom-drone)

Kingdom Of Giants – Bleeding Star (nu/electro-metalcore)

Krilloan – Return Of The Heralds (power metal)

Kublai Khan TX – Exhibition of Prowess (brutal/beatdown hardcore)

Lovelost – Collapse (emo rock, screamo)

Luna Sol – Vita Mors (stoner rock/doom)

Michael Schenker – My Years With UFO (hard rock/metal)

Molok – Ne pas chercher à comprende (back metal)

Mork – Syv (progressive black metal)

Mortier – Chaos Venerator (blackened death metal)

Neptune – End Of Time (industrial melo-goth?)

Nightwish – Yesterwynde (symphonic power metal)

Obšar – Propastnyk (meloblack)

Odious Spirit – The Treason Of Consciousness (weird prog/tech-death)

Oscillotron – Oblivion (drone)

Outer Graves – Terminal Limit (death metal)

Paulus – UnderWorld (folk)

Perpetual Legacy – Teodrama (symphonic metal)

Phantom Hound – This Place Is Haunted (sludgy blackened doom-grunge?)

Pink Panther Project – Intoxicating Embrace (synth goth)

Pyrah – Veni Vidi Delevi (groove death)

Regional Justice Centre – Freedom Sweet Freedom (grindcore, powerviolence)

Seed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch – Perversion Pyre (blackish death metal)

Seether – The Surface Seems So Far (nu metal, butt rock)

Serious Black – Rise Of Akhenaton (heavy/power metal)

Servant – Death Devil Magick (melodic black metal)

Siderean – Spilling the Astral Chalice (progressive death-doom)

Soulride – Murder Act (melodeath-thrash)

Steal The City – Road To Nowhere (melodic butt metal)

Sweet – Full Circle (hardish rock, grandpa glam)

Terry Gross – Huge Improvement (alt/prog rock)

Theigns & Thralls – The Keep And The Spire (folk metal)

Thorium – The Bastard (death metal)

Undertomb – Rituale Noctis (death metal)

Unjoyful Play – Unjoyful Play (deathy prog-doom)

Untervoid – Parasite (black metal)

Unto Others – Never, Neverland (heavy metal, goth rock)

Valkiria – Embrace the End (goth doom)

Vended – Vended (nu metal, nepocore)

Tell me you’re Corey Taylor‘s kid without ttelling me you’re Corey Talylor’s kid.

Virgin Vampires – Virgin Vampires (industrial goth)

Vision Divine – Blood And Angels’ Tears (progressive power metal)

Vltor – Non Auro Sed Ferro (black metal)

Wings Denied – Just The Basics (progressive alt-rock)