There is a madness to the method I use to review a record. Any record. What I do is put on my headphones, crank it up to ear-bleed level, and go about my day. Now, to some this might seem disrespectful — after all, the band, label, or PR were kind enough to send me the album, the least I can do is give it my undivided attention — but there are reasons for this.

One: I’m a busy motherfucker and this empire isn’t going to build itself.

Two: If a band can’t distract me from what I’m doing, then it isn’t my thing.

Sometimes an album slides by and I’ve absorbed bugger all of it. Other times it tugs at my sleeve, makes me rewind a track or two. And then, very rarely, there are records that stop me dead. Everything else gets abandoned. The day pauses. The noise takes over completely.

V.O.I.D by Asaru falls squarely into that last category.

This is not background Black Metal. This is not something you casually absorb while ticking off a to-do list. V.O.I.D demands full submission, and once it has you, it doesn’t let go. From the opening moments it establishes itself as something vast, hostile, and meticulously constructed — a record that understands the power of extremity, but also understands restraint.

At its core, V.O.I.D is ferocious. The blast beats hit with bone-splintering force, relentless but never careless. There’s intent behind every musical barrage, every sudden acceleration, every moment where the drums feel like they’re trying to tear the floor out from under you. This isn’t speed for the sake of speed. It’s controlled violence, channelled with precision.

But what elevates V.O.I.D beyond sheer aggression is its weight. Asaru know when to pull back, when to let riffs breathe, when to slow things down and let the darkness settle in. These passages don’t offer relief — they’re arguably heavier than the fast sections. Thick, oppressive riffs drag themselves across the album like collapsing structures, creating an atmosphere that feels genuinely terrifying.

The guitar work is particularly impressive in how it balances savagery with texture. There are moments of pure, scalding tremolo assault, but they’re offset by moments that feel ritualistic, almost ceremonial in their pacing. The riffs aren’t flashy. They don’t show off. They exist to serve the album’s larger vision, and that vision is one of total annihilation — emotional, spiritual, and psychological.

Vocally, Asaru opts for a delivery that sounds less like performance and more like expulsion. These aren’t vocals meant to sit neatly in the mix or provide catchy hooks. They claw, scrape, and bleed their way through the record, acting as another layer of hostility rather than a focal point. At times they feel distant, buried beneath the instrumentation like something screaming from beneath the earth; at others they surge forward, raw and confrontational, demanding attention whether you’re ready or not.

Production-wise, V.O.I.D walks a difficult line and nails it. The album sounds massive without becoming polished. There’s clarity where it’s needed, but the rough edges are left intact. This is not sterile Black Metal. There’s grit in every corner of the mix, a tangible sense of space and depth that makes the album feel cavernous rather than compressed. You can hear the violence. You can feel the pressure.

What really sets V.O.I.D apart, though, is its sense of purpose. This album knows exactly what it is and never wavers. There’s no filler, no indulgent detours, no moments where it feels like Asaru are spinning their wheels. Every track feeds into the next, building a larger, monstrous whole.

V.O.I.D is the kind of album that reminds you why Black Metal still matters. Not as a nostalgia exercise. Not as a genre defined by aesthetics or dogma. But as a living, breathing force capable of overwhelming beauty and total destruction in equal measure. It doesn’t care if you’re comfortable. It doesn’t care if you’re ready.

It just takes you.

V.O.I.D by Asaru is out January 23rd via Schwarzdorn Production.

CHOICE CUT: War – The Divine Beauty of Blood

BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: V.O.I.D is total domination from start to finish — violent, suffocating, and immaculately controlled. Asaru proves that true heaviness isn’t about speed alone, but intent and atmosphere. This is Black Metal that stops you cold and demands everything you have. Mandatory listening.

PRESS SOURCE: Cátia C./Against PR.