It Is Dead and Void Me's Upcoming Split is Caustic Catharsis (Early Stream)
Crossing both national and continental borders, the upcoming split from It Is Dead (Wisconsin) and Void Me (Brazil) unifies two bands sharing a very important attribute: sounding extremely filthy. Oh, and also antifascism, but I think the overall sonic nastiness of this split requires extra attention.
Though billed on Bandcamp as antifascist black metal, ‘black metal’ kind of undersells the musical diversity here. Both It is Dead and Void Me do have elements of the genre, but, in the case of It Is Dead, sludge and hardcore form a core that’s corrupted further with elements of death and black metal, and Void Me draws heavily from crust in their gloriously unpolished assault. We’re streaming the whole split below, so indulge in both flavors below.
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When I saw It Is Dead late last year, I noted that they resembled the “earliest, nastiest iterations of death doom,” and that’s still a factor here: to really capture their sound, you have to go back to the rough and energetic primordial soup that early extreme metal sprang from and give up on measly sub-genres. They are simply a pissed-off cavalcade of loud noises that grinds forward “in the name of human rights,” as their final song from the split, “Crucify Your Masters,” repeatedly declares.
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On Void Me’s side of the split, blackened crust proves to be remarkably versatile, with each track taking a different approach to dealing out pure rage. Often relying on the always-badass ‘tupa tupa’ beat (probably not a technical term, but think early Slayer pacing), spidery black metal riffs crunch the low end and distort on high notes, delightfully pummeling the ears with enough speed to thrill but without burying all the lo-fi crackly goodness in the mix.
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Circling back to what unites these bands a little more seriously, both It Is Dead and Void Me aren’t just throwing ‘antifascism’ in here as a buzzword. Go to any It Is Dead show and you’ll hear, unfiltered, just what they believe, and Void Me is equally outspoken. This is a release that’s packed with utter mayhem and performed with unabashed brazenness, but there is a message behind it. Still, that message is best received when you’re good and mad, so go ahead and crank this up.
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The It is Dead/Void Me split releases February 3rd via Fiadh Productions (US) plus Vlad Tapes (Brazil) and Vita Detestabilis (EU/UK).
