Bright-Burning Doom: The Answer Lies in the Black Void Kindle "Virgin Fire" (Video Premiere)
Dreams have a unique appeal to our waking selves: impossible ideas and contradictions can exist in dreams that we could never experience otherwise. While not quite dealing in impossibilities, doom metal venture The Answer Lies in the Black Void does manage to slightly part the veil on their new album Thou Shalt. Their adventurous sound is a contradiction of sorts - dour, cynical riffs arranged against powerful lead guitar and helmed by soaring vocals - that slowly constructs sonic labyrinths looming at the edge of imagination. Backmasking and layering create foggy terrain for the band's cinematic doom metal to maneuver within, punctuating long dirges with bursts of sweeping drama. At times, there's a sense of fantasy or even horror, but the most shocking moments are when Thou Shalt simply aims right for the heart.
Thy Catafalque vocalist Martina Horváth and Jason Köhnen (Bong-Ra, Celestial Season) first joined forces for 2021's Forlorn, and return as a duo on Thou Shalt as well, although they'll be joined by a full band for some upcoming live dates. For a glimpse into the expressive, poignantly beautiful soundscape of Thou Shalt, check out the video for "Virgin Fire" below.
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Though I'm not a fan of AI-generated videos (as the band notes below, this one uses GEN-2), I do feel like it's a good fit for capturing how dreams feel when interpreted once awake, and this video nails the execution. There's just enough right (or just enough wrong) to force the viewer to question what they're seeing, and that's the perfect blend of suspense and curiosity to match the music.
The band comments:
The Virgin Fire was created using the GEN-2 AI software, modelling the dream-like surreal and occult images that visualise The Answer Lies In The Black Void’s universe. Our second album Thou Shalt is inspired by the concept of Carl Jung’s shadow and "Virgin Fire" deals with the concept of the dream state according to these works of Jung : “The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul”.
Thou Shalt releases October 13th through Burning World Records.
