BLACK VOID Inks Worldwide Deal With Nuclear Blast; Debut Album Due In May; Video For First Single Released
March 18, 2022, 2 years ago
Hard rock band White Void’s debut record Anti (also on Nuclear Blast) was one of last year’s most colorful and surprising releases. But vocalist and band frontman Lars Are Nedland – also a long-time member of Borknagar and Solefald – clearly needed a contrast to all the color and flamboyance, and thus Black Void forced itself into being. Not a band for waiting, the debut album, Antithesis, was recorded almost immediately and is set to be released through Nuclear Blast on May 27 - as a grimy contrast to White Void’s melodic outlet.
Antithesis, then, is nihilistic aggression and desperation. Furious and unrepentant in attitude, it builds on the philosophical works of Friedrich Nietzsche while leaning on punk rock and black metal. Nihilistic, filthy, violent and raw.
Today, Black Void premiere their frantic first single and music video, "Reject Everything". Watch it below, and get the single digitally here.
Lars Are Nedland comments: "You can only take so much colour and harmony in your life. This one’s for the gloom. For the fury. For the filthiness of existence. Nihilism tells us there are no grounds for morality or knowledge in life. So, what does that leave us? Nothing! Nihil! The only sensible reaction to that is to Reject Everything”.
Black Void is a punk laden, black metal infused band spearheaded by Lars Are Nedland, and completed by drummer Tobias Solbakk (Ihsahn, White Void, In Vain) and guitarist Jostein Thomassen (Borknagar, Profane Burial).
In many ways Black Void is the flipside of White Void: A full-on rejection of the philosophy of Albert Camus and an endorsement of Friedrich Nietzsche, a full-on rejection of a soft, melodic approach to music and a full-on rejection of a playful, tongue-in-cheek attitude. With that as a backdrop, Antithesis becomes an album that pays respect to fifty years of punk and forty years of black metal – a musical equivalent of a punk with a Mohawk fighting a dude in corpse paint.
Add to that guest vocal appearances by black metal royalties Sakis Tolis of Rotting Christ and Hoest of Taake, Antithesis appears as a statement of sorts: A nihilistic musical outburst flipping off morality and hailing aggression while at the same time forcing your foot to tap to its relentless drive.
Antithesis was written and recorded between 2019 and 2021 and mixed and mastered by Øystein G. Brun at Crosound Studio. Drums were engineered and recorded by Tobias Øymo Solbakk at Splinter Studios, while bass, vocals and keys were engineered and recorded by Lars Are Nedland at Mezzanine Studios. Guitars were engineered and recorded by Jostein Thomassen at Riff Sheriff Studio and keys are played by Lars Are Nedland.
Pre-order Antithesis in the format of your choice here.
Antithesis tracklisting:
"Void"
"Reject Everything"
"Death to Morality"
"Tenebrism of Life"
"No Right, No Wrong"
"It's not Surgery, it's a Knife Fight"
"Explode into Nothingness"
"Nihil"
"Dadaist Disgust"
"Reject Everything" video: