{"id":31177,"date":"2015-05-11T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T00:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=31177"},"modified":"2015-06-14T15:29:41","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T15:29:41","slug":"album-review-void-paradigm-earths-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-void-paradigm-earths-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"VOID PARADIGM – Earth\u2019s Disease (2015) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

VOID PARADIGM
Earth\u2019s Disease<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nApathia (2015)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I always find it a tad uncomfortable listening and reviewing black metal albums when the summer months are suddenly upon us! Maybe it\u2019s because a majority of albums within the scene are best soaked up during a frightful blizzard.<\/p>\n

But anyway, French black metallers Void Paradigm have just slapped their sophomore opus Earth\u2019s Disease<\/em> into my lap, and I certainly wouldn\u2019t pass up the opportunity in sticking this one on the stereo.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been three years since 2012\u2019s self-titled debut from a band who call their style of extremity \u201chypnotic dodecatonic black metal”. Admittedly, the debut from the trio is one which slipped under my radar; after all, the amount of black metal bands emerging over the last decade has been phenomenal and suffocating, although not many stand out from the crowd, but Void Paradigm do boast that certain quality to go against the grain within the genre.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s very noticeable about this bunch is the accessibility of the music, because while the outfit are more than happy to scrape the flesh off your face with fast, abrasive textures, they also seem extremely happy to provide dark, yet slower scathing moments of unorthodox percussion and strange rolling guitars of unpredictable fashion. One moment they hint at Voivod and the next reminding me of Norwegian oddballs Tulus with those jarring arrangements. So this is far from being routine black metal.<\/p>\n

What is also extremely notable are the vocals of Jonathan Th\u00e9ry, which sit well outside the expected black metal aesthetics. For the most part, they come across as a grating, hoarse puke, but at their most formidable they slip into deathlier grumbles and growls. Such is their passion and torment though, they walk hand in hand with the jerking rhythms and almost progressive shifts of pattern within Alexis Damien\u2019s drum stabs and rattles. However, the most impressive tumult coughed up is the guitar and bass of Julien Payan whose sounds are a joy to behold within a record that boasts plenty of cosmic philosophy as well as anguish and atmosphere.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that Void Paradigm\u2019s sound is a complex maze, but at one moment there is a fabulous punky edge as with segments of \u2018Revenge\u2019 and its closing prod, while opener \u2018Crushing The Human Skull\u2019 is at once barbaric in its thorny plight as well as slow and grating, especially with that insistent guitar scrape and impressive drum work.<\/p>\n

With only one listen I\u2019m reminded that black metal is far from being done; Void Paradigm clearly not interested in the usual, now predictable corpse-painted approach amidst a sea of bad production and dissonant riffage. Instead, we get an element of meatiness, albeit a cold, empty vacuum where the guitars worm in an unhinged and always unnerving fashion. The overall feel is something akin to experiencing a depressive, frosty air but one so black and enticing that by the time you\u2019ve reached the pitch depths of \u2018Sick Life Fading\u2019, you\u2019re already resorting to a hypnotic state where semi-industrialised mocking is the order the day.<\/p>\n

Here the vocals are a grim, foreboding narration accompanied by a trickling guitar melody and stark, stirring drum tap. Indeed, for me anyway, my black metal needs to be arrogant and foreboding \u2013 and those are the two main key elements which make Earth\u2019s Disease<\/em> so potent and rewarding.<\/p>\n

Every track is a surprise; one which is reasonably instant and yet heretical in its structure. \u2018Sick Life Fading\u2019 builds to a frothing foray into the rampant and yet without ever being truly fast or harrowingly slow; instead, we find this middle-ground of stabbing, cavorting techniques and some truly unexpected catchy hooks.<\/p>\n

The closing 11-minute wonder that is \u2018From The Earth To The Skies\u2019 is a prime example of how the band incorporates some unusual concepts that exist way outside of the expected black metal framework; to the point that you find yourself rewinding numerous passages just to make sure that what you heard was so bewildering and yet oddly simple.<\/p>\n

In either their most ferocious state or their slowest guise, it would be extremely unfair to label Earth\u2019s Disease<\/em> as a black metal artefact; that riffage on \u2018From The Earth To The Skies\u2019 is a cool, slick slab of thrash menace, while elsewhere we have hints of that derisive, sneering black metal quality, and yet there\u2019s just something more thrown in that gives the record an almost unique feel. Even so, Void Paradigm can still muster up a pure black metal spikiness at times.<\/p>\n

Earth\u2019s Disease<\/em> is very much thinking man\u2019s black metal, which although hinting to the mid-to-late 90s air of experimentalism, remains in its own uncomplicated and yet progressive field.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOID PARADIGMEarth\u2019s Disease Apathia (2015)Rating: 8\/10 I always find it a tad uncomfortable listening and reviewing black metal albums when the summer months are suddenly upon us! Maybe it\u2019s because a majority of albums within the scene are best soaked up during a frightful blizzard. But anyway, French black metallers Void Paradigm have just slapped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,2205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-void-paradigm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31177"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31185,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31177\/revisions\/31185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}