Voidscape – Odyssey of Spite (Nefarious Industries)
Monday, 3rd April 2023
This three-piece from New Jersey Voidscape contains musicians with a wealth of experience across the underground metal scenery – either live or studio endeavors with Tombs, Sworn Enemy, Replicant, Windfaerer, or Chaos Sanctuary among others. Releasing a two-song demo plus “Drifting Purpose” single in their first two years, they’ve been absent from the studio at least in this unit until now – ready to assault the world with a debut EP for Odyssey of Spite. After numerous spins, it’s quite apparent that listeners can expect a style that is equally intoxicating from the melodic death metal framework, yet not forsaking North American finesse or groove/modern touches to spice up the proceedings.
The guitar work possesses a focused energy on massive hooks right away that branch off into low-tuned juggernaut riffs or linear harmony lines – Rob Torres sharp to the touch in his transitions for early head turner “Burden of Breathing” while drummer Justin Spaeth floats between slamming groove sequences and fluid, energetic death/thrash angst. Midway through a 70’s soundtrack interlude “Ludlow” allows for that aural breather one might expect, that left of center instrumental many could talk about for days. The jumpy underpinning for many musical sequences along with twisted clean, spacious bass/heavier contrasts takes “Extinctionborn” into that rarified air – where Machine Head or Meshuggah careen into Dark Tranquillity or At the Gates. Over the top of it all is the scathing voice which bursts at the seams to pull all the aggressive roars into a semblance of sanity – Mike Ximenez alert to summon every low to high scream in his arsenal, dripping in venomous despair for the closer “The Unsaved”. If there’s only one negative relating to these five tracks, it’s over in a quick 16 minutes – a tantalizing teaser yet we’ve been told that a full-length follow-up is already in the cards soon.
Melancholy melodic death metal that serves as a punishing reminder of the beauty of this genre – Voidscape should garner plenty of ears and eyeballs with Odyssey of Spite to get more of a foothold across the global spectrum through this release.
