Critic's evaluation
Just over a year after announcing Thought Insertion, their debut album, The Giant Void returned to Fuzzr Audio to record what would become their second studio album between 2022 and 2023. Entitled Abyssal, the material was mastered by Fernando Delgado.
There is no ceremony whatsoever. So, before the first second is over, the song already presents the listener with a dense, dark and unscrupulous punch. Although the harshness of the guitars stands out, the low stridency of the bass is another element that, also provided by Felipe Colenci, makes the song exude a raw, metallic aroma in a latent way. With generous doses of suspense, tension and drama, the song is precise mainly due to the conciseness with which Michael Ehré executes the drums, an instrument on which the rhythmic base is even filled with double bass drum applications to give more power to the rhythmic-melodic structure. A balanced mix of metal, heavy metal and metalcore, Dirty Sinner is narrated by a timbre with a sour but serene essence. Coming from Hugo Rafael, it is he who adds touches of aggression and grandeur to the track, a work that tells of the condition of an individual in the early stages of madness due to the excess of guilt dumped on his conscience. A being comfortable in this sense of desolation and lack of lucidity in perceiving himself as a slave not only to pain, but to memories that stabbingly wound the heart already battered by a corrupt nature.
The fog is gradually dissipating. Still emanating a mystical essence, it allows a glimpse, from the edge of the summit, of a soft horizon, providing a sense of hope. It is true that the new environment is filled with a reflective and densely melancholic energy, something that is even amplified by the vocal interpretation, which is presented in a purely narrative way. With clean vocals intended to pour dramatic doses into the storyline, Colenci is accompanied by a backing vocal with a robust, full-bodied structure, while Ashen Empires, Pt. 2 (Nwo) takes the form of an example of alternative metal. Between bursts of a politely full-bodied bass, the track finally finds its fully formed silhouette by accessing an instrumental harmonized by the combination of different bass tones offered by the guitars with the icy notes of the keyboard. With this symphonic metal structure, Ashen Empires, Pt. 2 (Nwo) finds power, precision and consistency as it recounts the arrival of a child representing the embodiment of all the consequences of the bad habits assumed by a misgoverned society. And in the world where she will live, everything will be full of the consequences of incompetence and the utmost absence of a sense of community: limited resources, barbaric impulses and education based on hypocrisy.
The guitar is raw, rough and tremulous, applying thrash metal to its melody. With the help of the dry drum hits on the snare drum, the dark and gloomy sensations are densely amplified. It's interesting to note that, even under a rhythm with a cynical and schizophrenic essence, there are traces of softness from simple flirtations with the hard rock theme. Explosive, icy and nauseating, The Key evolves into heavy metal terrain in its chorus, which exposes a certain Iron Maiden influence in this melodic aesthetic. It is in this way that the work represents society's need for a moment that can simply offer a respite from the pain, fear and chaos of humanity. Even so, The Key also highlights the manipulation we suffer from our own feelings, which hide reason and lucidity, making us futile slaves to our emotions. And such sentimentality prevents us from accepting life's imperfections and finally overcoming them. This, then, is the real implication of The Key: our fears make us puppets of our emotions, blinding us to conscience and courage, turning us into dependents on morphine and the idea of utopia.
Fast, exciting. Energetic. The awakening of the new environment is trotting, electric and its structure is reminiscent of that of The Loa's Crossroad, a track by Volbeat. Offering a good mix of metal, groove metal and heavy metal with hints of metalcore, the song is dark in its essence, with hints of progressive metal. Filled with double kick drums and overlapping vocals, Monster Within is a song in which The Giant Void, just as in Ashen Empires, Pt. 2 (Nwo), proposes facing the consequences of one's actions. Here, however, the plot is darker, more morbid and psychological, as the character finds himself in lapses of conscience that give him intense moments of guilt. However, these achievements were motivated by something and that something is the id, the impulse, the voice of a sordid desire externalized by the figure of the individual's true essence. An essence which, in Monster Within, has been strongly repressed, but which has found an opening to rebel and show its perverse nature.
As the wind blows, a harsh but melodic atmosphere enters with a strong scent of the beginning of chaos. Cavalcading, it features guitars that are divided between agonizing suffering and rage, as it matures its recipe based on a mixture of metalcore and progressive metal. When the first verse kicks in, the rhythmic structure starts to exude slight speed metal aromas, with the double kick drum making a big presence to create consistency and pressure. With this silhouette, The Black Pit offers the listener a history lesson by musically portraying the military campaign of the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest maritime confrontation during the Second World War between the nations of the Allied and Axis blocs.
Bringing, from the start, a European hard rock character reminiscent of the aesthetic built up by Pink Cream 69, Mars soon demonstrates its melodic, infectious and curiously floral structure. Offering a mixture of the aforementioned hard rock with progressive metal and a few hints of symphonic metal, the track is already mature in its harmonic personality. Contagious in its melodic power and harshness, it is an aesthetically well-crafted piece that is just as exciting as Monster Within. Also featuring hints of heavy metal, Mars, with its mystical and thoughtful storyline about the true role and responsibility of Mars to humanity on Earth, can be considered Abyssal's first purely radio single.
Maintaining the same European hard rock base as the previous song, the new horizon only has the difference of being slower. Ruled by dramatic bursts of solo guitar during the intro, the set features a well-equalized melody in which the listener is able to digest everything from the groovy waves of a slightly strident bass to the sweetly icy notes of the keyboard. Miles away from the plot of tracks like Dirty Sinner, Ashen Empires, Pt. 2 (Nwo) and Monster Within, Inner Truth presents a motivational, hopeful and generous character by instilling in the listener persistence, determination, self-confidence and the courage to stand up and continue with life, even when it is chaotic.
Sweet and floral, the introduction surprises with its sensory change. From brutalized melody to lightness and sweetness. It doesn't take long, however, for this scenario to be suddenly deconstructed, but not in its entirety. Governed by a powerful and precise base coming from a bass of dense strident consistency, the new sound phrase offers sensuality and excitement, in a way that tangents with the energetic melody designed in Monster Within. Recreating and allowing the audience to clap along in possible live performances of this song, the sound that accompanies the first verse is inviting and contagious. With a heavy metal bias from the tremulous phrases of the base guitar, War Heroes is a track that, as its name suggests, salutes those who have fought for their country in wars throughout history. The track thus joins a long and extensive list of songs with the same purpose of praising and paying tribute to soldiers who have honored their homelands in battles around the world. To name a few, War Heroes is on a par with Alter Bridge's You Will Be Remembered and Lynyrd Skynyrd's The Last Rebel.
Rough, stabbing. Dangerous. As in the previous track, the bass is an extremely important element in building rhythmic-melodic consistency. With its intensely strident phrases, to the point of communicating the influence of Robert Trujillo in the formulation of its sound essence, the instrument, as in War Heroes, adds hints of thrash metal to the melodic recipe. This character adds to the harsh essence that exudes from Chosen One, an arid but curiously melodramatic and tearful track. With angry outbursts, the track features Colenci displaying great vocal range in his tuneful and well-executed falsetto, falsetto that represents the apex of order and obligation for obedience. Chosen One is a work with a plot full of fierce criticism of the blind behavior of a citizen wrapped up in boundless religiosity. It is here that The Giant Void places the figure of God as a monarch from the heavens demanding faith and wealth, personifying and, at the same time, metaphorizing religious manipulation in order to get rich and a social hypnosis based on the abuse of the need for support and compassion of an individual who lacks support to endure his sufferings.
The base guitar leads the line with an acidic, tremulous riff. Then the drums and bass come in together in a low-pitched unison. Both fusing together in a low, but fluid rhythm, make the new phrase a sour and corrosive moment. Reaching its apex from a curiously nauseating structure in its metallic base, Dimensions Collide is a work that proposes to the listener to reflect on themselves. A product that works as a self-analysis session by giving the viewer the opportunity to observe themselves and, from there, conclude whether what they feel is pride, shame or sadness. Dimensions Collide is a provocation for the viewer to make a self-judgment and a call for them to change their behavior, to overcome. And, above all, to understand the reason for imprisoning their true essence.
The fog rises thickly over the barren night landscape. Its sour and morbid aroma makes the atmosphere gloomy and capable of encouraging disgust in those who pass through it. This is how a dark, Celtic texture is built up as the song moves along its cynical linearity. In a few moments, the melody is taken over by a heavy metal outburst with a dense, strident and sequentially punctuated bass base, to the point of communicating the influence of Black Sabbath on the sound construction of The Giant Void. With an undulating metallic feel, Ashen Empires, Pt.1 (Rising Empire) ends up mixing elements of doom metal with hints of stoner rock until a gothic, cathedral ambience begins to be drawn. Dark, icy and even gloomy, Ashen Empires, Pt. 1 (Rising Empire) is harsh melodically and harmonically dramatic during its chorus. With a strong opinionated storyline about the digital world and the way technology is increasingly and unbridledly entering people's lives, the track criticizes high dependency and envisions a future in which, based on the artificial intelligence that is being inserted into a new social scenario, the entire population will become, more than today, slaves to the screen, technology, the digital and the virtual in a continuous action that takes away the individual's capacity for rationality.
Terrifying to the point of making your hair stand on end, your pupils dilate and sweat run down your face in icy drops, petrified with adrenaline and tension. From a slow start, but with a butchery bias, the song soon turns into something raw, explosive, chaotic and sonically vociferous. Between screams of ardent enjoyment in its insolent content, the solo guitar communicates alternative metal inserts in this intensely metallic and provocative recipe. Offering the listener chaotic scenarios, but also sudden calm like that of the eye of the hurricane, Human Downfall features Colenci dividing himself between harsh guttural and clean vocals, showing the influence and familiarity with the interpretative division assumed by names like Serj Tankian and Corey Taylor. With a rhythm so trotting that it's even bloody, Human Downfall is an epic song that mixes drama and rage, intensity and lightness, torpor and brutality, sounding out a Babylonian plot about the effect of epidemics and pandemics on society. The way in which the proliferation of a disease can completely transform the routine of a people and their behavior, change their way of thinking and acting, modify their habits. The song takes a negative and gloomy view of the proliferation of community and individual coexistence with death, an entity so feared and suddenly so present in the lives of citizens. It's no wonder that Human Downfall represents not only what the Covid-19 pandemic has unleashed, but also the consequences of several other global pandemics and epidemics throughout history. It is from these epidemiological and deadly outbreaks that The Giant Void sees the decline of humanity.
It is undoubtedly intense material, but intense in its morbidity, its cynicism and its acidity. Intense in its explosive and powerful melodies. Intense in its lyricism with strong opinions and social reflections. Abyssal is an album in which The Giant Void explores the relationship with death and, with it, drama and chaos, but, curiously, they haven't let themselves become orphans of hope.
For many, the way in which the group has chosen to discuss certain themes is exhausting, tiresome and difficult to digest because of its well-structured thoughts and opinionated bases that are contrary to the masses. However, on the album, a range of subjects and narrative structures are presented, providing a curious smoothness for the listener to walk the proposed terrain without sameness.
The relationship with the sense of guilt is just the opener, followed by the arrival of the Devil's prodigal son to rule an ungoverned world. On behavioral issues, in addition to remorse, Abyssal brings songs that elucidate the fact that every act has its consequence, as well as reflections on how the emotions of fear and insecurity can make the individual a slave to their own emotions.
Always powerful and harsh, the album also presents the listener with a history lesson set to music in The Black Pit, radio singles such as Monster Within and Mars, as well as purely motivational pieces such as Inner Truth. In this way, the album goes from extreme negativity, through socio-behavioral criticism and arrives at a kind of encouragement for the soul.
From the dense inconvenient harmfulness of titles like Ashen Empires, Pt. 2 (Nwo) and Human Downfall, Abyssal still spares no dialog in proposing discussions about religious manipulation in Chosen One and technological chaos in Dimensions Collide. But even if it's not necessarily the album's closing track, the essence of the album is hope for better days, motivating the viewer to stay on course with life.
In order to give vent to so many themes and leave them with the right pressure and melodic paths, The Giant Void recruited Delgado to do the mixing. With the professional's help, Abyssal came to life with power, strength and precision from good equalizations and a competent fusion of subgenres such as metal, heavy metal, metalcore, alternative metal, doom metal, thrash metal, progressive metal, groove metal, symphonic metal, speed metal, hard rock and stoner rock.
Rounding off the album's technical scope is the cover artwork. Jointly designed by João Vicentim, John Rendereing and João Schendel, it features a kind of mummified face. Adorned with such darkness as to cause chills, this silhouetted face has a bluish tint, as if it were communicating death. This detail is even reinforced by the dusty waltz of the corrosion of this same face, indicating, from the end, a possible and metaphorical rebirth.
Released on 10/31/2023 in an independent way, Abyssal is an album of morbid, corrosive and harsh explosions, but its essence does not hide the hope of a new beginning. Like the dialog of life, the album is the exploration and unveiling of a global society ungoverned by its own impulsive sense that takes away lucidity and makes it a slave to itself.
