Collaborative projects between members of various bands have become so frequent, the term supergroup does seem to hold less weight nowadays, but when considering the line-up of Predatory Void, it certainly holds more weight. Lennart Bossu (of Amenra, Oathbreaker fame) found that the material he was writing wasn’t suitable for the former, and thus created this daring side project. Bringing on Lina R on vocals, with Tim De Gieter (bass; Amenra, Doodseskader, Much Luv Studio), Thijs De Cloedt (guitar; Cobra The Impaler, ex-Aborted), and Vincent Verstrepen (drums), the group has some epic foundations. And following what seems to be a common theme, they hail from Belgium, currently a hotbed for great metal acts.
Predatory Void‘s debut album Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being certainly meets the high standards you’d expect from such a group, with seven tracks of furious metallic noise being unleashed at you, without much room to catch your breath in the record. A bleak cacophony of blast beats, wrapped up with catastrophic drums and brilliantly metered vocals, hoists this record to the upper reaches of the metal pile this year.
“Grovel” is a massive opener to the album, with a clean as fuck riff opening processions. Grandiose in both delivery and tone, Predatory Void waste no time in letting you know how massive their tone and sound will be. Following soon after with a turgid round of sweeping riffs that face off against furious blasting drums, you then get into the real meat of this chaotic metal band. Lina gets to strut her stuff and wow the audience with her insane range. From the deepest roars to some of the best blackened screeches I’ve heard, all the way through to haunting whispers, Lina can do it all, and very well too.
The influences I pick out range from everything between Rolo Tomassi and Gojira, with plenty of blackened metal thrown on the bonfire for good measure. Cleverly broaching a plethora of genres, the tracks at the beginning of the album feel really fresh and well crafted. “*(struggling..)” has a stunning doomy riff that underpins the track, broken up with furious belting sections from the guitars and drums.
Yet here is the kicker, on a personal level. Track four, “Seeds of Frustration”, is a gorgeous slow track, expertly delivered. After that massive change in direction, however, getting back into the final three tracks has been quite the struggle on all of my eight playthroughs. And I usually love the slow breaks in albums! In this case, I can’t work out if it’s purely that I’m yearning for more cohesion and storytelling from the album as a whole, or if I’m simply just tired of the sustained noise at this point. Whilst I don’t listen to the blackened genre(s) much, and certainly cannot discuss the technical nuances that are employed (and I’m likely overlooking many here), it all feels like it’s been done before by others, and this is just a very minor tweak on the formula.
All in all, this is still a solid record that metalheads across the spectrum will enjoy. It isn’t easy listening, but it is damn well powerful, and the cohesion between the new band members is fantastic to see too. While this won’t be landing on my personal album of the year list, Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being is well worth the time for fans of Amenra, Oathbreaker, Gojira, and many more. I can see the appeal that it has to those who want blackened, doomy metal driven at them in reams.
