Predatory Void – Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being
Release Date: 21st April 2023
Label: Century Media Records
Pre-Order/Pre-Save
Genre: Post everything, Black Metal, Doom, Death Metal, Screamo, Hardcore.
FFO: Shadow of Intent, Cradle of Filth, Lorna Shore, The Black Dahlia Murder.
Review By: Rick Farley
The area surrounding Flemish city Ghent has proven to be fertile ground for innovative and experimental sounds in the realm of intense music. Belgium’s newest genre bending band, Predatory Void, draws from a deep well of inspiration. Not easily categorized, this extreme band artfully incorporates elements of doom, death metal, screamo, black metal, post metal and hardcore into an eclectic mix of dreary and harsh soundscapes. Predatory Void’s members are already established musicians that have come from other “without boundaries” bands such as Amenra, Oathbreaker, and Aborted, with each member bringing different influences into the mix to create one fairly coherent little bastard child of sub-genre labels.
Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being is a hard listen, not in the sense that it’s not easily digested, but in the sense that it’s just dreadfully aggressive, and vile, overtly mimicking the multi-layered journey of being human and all the sickness and ills of everything that comes with it. The mood of the record can flip on a moment’s notice, ranging from frantic screaming over crushing guitars to almost monotone cleans over dissonant melodies. Looming bleakness reaching heights of weight filled riffs crashing down to form solemn waves of harmonic movements. Often swaying from one extreme to the other, the juxtapositions can be jarring but also nauseatingly satisfying. When a jagged death metal groove hits after a sombre passage, it feels like a bulldozer smashing a brick wall. Eventually relenting to quieter soundscapes only to smash you again with screaming post hardcore intensity. This album venomously strikes you from every angle, never letting you get comfortable for long before its rotting teeth gnash mercilessly at your soft flesh.
One of the first singles released *(struggling..) is the perfect representation of the unhinged mayhem you should be expecting. The blackened ferocity throughout the beginning, switching gears abruptly to a more post metal approach that carries the same dark vibes, but only hushed, only to ramp the violence back up with death growls and doom filled guitars. Also, a tattoo artist, Linna R. is the main vocalist; she ranges from screechy hardcore vehemence to showing her vulnerability in softer spoken like approach with lengthy drawn out singing as accents. Bassist Tim De Gieter adds in the gutturals, often as a companion piece to her shrills, which works extremely well in the nastiness department. Guitarist and main songwriter Lennart Bossu describes Predatory Void as the more obnoxious and delinquent sibling of Oathbreaker, who will not hesitate to punch you in the face as needed. One such song that carries a lot of weight with that statement is Endless Return to the Kingdom of Sleep. It sways with slightly distorted airy guitars building to blasting drums from Vincent Verstrepen over the swirling melodies, never moving too far out of the dissonant soundscape. It’s not soothing, but it has droning qualities. This abruptly changes a little past the two-minute mark without any warning, flexing a hellishly thrashy guitar chug full of tremolo picked notes and gut-wrenching screams. The riffs and guitars from Lennart and second guitarist Thijs Decloedt carries on like a rabid dog fighting a pack of wolves until the track changes abruptly once again to a single clean guitar and her weary singing outro.
Needless to say, Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being is full of ranging dynamics, which are very well handled within the songs. As a whole, though, the album feels just a little disjointed and occasionally loses its footing. Just a small complaint that’s par for the course for these types of bands, with so much genre blending, sometimes it simply misses the mark trying to do too much. This does not change the fact that this is a vicious record aimed at the more open-minded fanbase that will soak this in like acid burning your skin. 
(3.5 / 5)
