TMR: Voidthrone- Kur

TECHNICAL MUSIC REVIEW

Voidthrone’s latest album “Kur” is out today May 4th.  They’re a dissonant blackened death metal band who’s unlike no other band out there right now……their eeriness and raw sound is what got me into this band.  Voidthrone is an energetic band that brings the heat every second on their 24 minute release.

The album artwork is as creepy and haunting as the album itself.  It only adds to the unusual and uneasy feeling their music portrays.  Kur is definitely one of the heaviest releases of 2018.
The band had this to say about their latest release….

“Musically, Kur builds on Voidthrone’s previous release. It contrasts established, repeated central riffs and textures with the drawn-out onslaught of sounds unfamiliar to the listener. It is with this approach that we strive to master a very certain art: that of the journey from beginning to end, from substance to emptiness. This requires embracing the emotional lows equally well as the highs. We write what feels natural to channel, but unnatural in relation to mainstream extreme metal. Our goal is to create unique and dissonant music that retains traditional elements of our genre without a pretentious air.

Lyrically, the album is an exploration of isolation and desolation. The songs touch on utter psychological collapse; an untethering from the reality, society, self. Kur begins from the perspective of an everyman, focused on some MacGuffin of enlightenment- religious, personal, scientific, universal, etc. As with any monkey paw story, there is a perverse result- obsession, madness, and unholy subterfuge. The concrete narrative quickly melts away into expressionistic confusion and chaos. The meaning and music assimilate and fully delve into tones of frantic terror and seething psychological sickness.

By the end of Kur, it is our intent to leave both listener and performer drained. Within this receptive exhaustion, we leave a spark- a seed of discontent that rejects normality. A hunger engendered for the other side of the veil. Beyond which- an absolute darkness, filled with Lions and Tigers and Bears. Oh my!

The album cover is an abstract painting created by the band at the beginning of the songwriting process, before we had started writing music. It is a visual representation of the root feelings that we used as the groundwork for the aural assault of Kur. It is the preface of the chaotic emotional state that we aim to cultivate.”

Originally published on Technical Music Review. Republished with permission.