The question as how heavy can music really get is one that will always have an open answer. We’re living in a time where music has no limits, no boundaries, and is constantly evolving with artists across the globe experimenting with new ways to find the most heaviest, skull-crushing tone imaginable. But for now, we must acknowledge the bands who are currently working their hands and ears to the bone in an array of genres, like black metal, power electronic, drone, sludge metal, and hardcore to keep things fresh and promising.
Standing above the pack as one of the most crushingly heavy and direct bands that fit this category certainly are US based death sludge mavericks Body Void. The band, formally known as Devoid until 2016, have been making waves in recent fringe music circles for their volatile sound, their socially conscious approach to heavy music, and their equally demising live performances. Since the band altered their moniker in 2016 they have proven productive with that of three full-length studio albums as well as a handful of splits and EPs to keep fans and new listeners engaged. Whilst Body Void has proven their uncompromisingly heavy sound is a tough feat to be marched on releases such as Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth (2021), their latest effort Atrocity Machine honestly tones back anything they have previously by a lot and trust me that’s saying a lot.
An instant dose of high octane commences as the record opens with a 30 second noisescape of tape manipulation with the sound collage of “Microwave” before instantly exploding into “Human Greenhouse” a brutally slow opener that burns through the sonic surface with piercing flange-based feedback and deafeningly high pitch vocal growls. Each beat seems carefully curated to resemble an impending threat or disaster of the ages; the apprehensive nature of the record gives a similar feeling to that of a horror soundtrack. The next song “Flesh Market” delivers a very fearsome sensation that renders the psychological aspects of horror as if you were listening to the musical accompaniment of someone’s psychotic breakdown, the pit of despair is open and the dissonance rings loud in periods of climactic tension.
The ways in which the band are able to implement elements of feedback that resonate at different pitches and timbres is an impressively stand-out quality that demonstrates this album’s creativity and diligence to experiment. The album also reveals the band’s socio-political commentary that they experience and acknowledged such as on the track “Cop Show” unleashes a socially inflicted attack on the way in which society looks passively at the violent nature of policing in the US and the victims that suffer the most through it. The song itself almost feels like a hostile dark ambient track that relies on several distinctive layers of feedback whilst an onslaught of pummelling dissonant riffs tear through the song’s fabric and leaves you with this whining, almost 70s cult horror like drone that induces a similar sense of fear to that of the song’s protagonists.
“Divine Violence” conjures more evil sentimentality through its uncompromising hellscape of powerful noise. If you’ve survived this far you should take a moment to appreciate the musicianship of each member of the band starting with Willow Ryan’s nasal rasp of a vocal delivery that screeches the cry of a banshee on each verse, whilst the doom-laden guitar work accompanies the artist’s ferocity; Eddie Holgerson unleashes a dangerously sluggish rhythmic pace in which the harsh percussive crashes feel violent and spiteful; accompanying his percussion is Janys-Iren Faughn’s power electronics that fill the empty spaces with a horror themed noise palette to deliver damaging results. The final track “Atrocity Machine” releases a final wave menacing tension through forceful delivery, it liberates the shackles of auditory constraint and pushes each of these sounds to their gut-wrenching limits.
Atrocity Machine is a vicious assault on the senses that takes the extreme, noise-encompassing aspects of doom and directs the through the lens of soul crushing horror soundtrack. Apprehensive and aggressive to the core, this album is layered in walls of feedback to personify the most brutal aspects of human creation, violently crafted to unleash surplus amounts of tension and render the evilest sounds imaginable. A credit to their craft, Body Void are continuing to push the boundaries of heaviness and carve out new sonic environments that induce feelings of psychosis, shock horror, and sonic anguish. It comes as no surprise that the band are reaching new heights and Atrocity Machine might be their greatest achievement yet as well as being a strong contender for heaviest album of the year.
