17th March 2022

Review: “The Void” by Crown of Madness

Written by an axis of evil in vocalist, guitarist Sunshine Schneider and drummer Connor Gordon “The Void” is the first work of Crown Of Madness, a band seeking to bring beauty into dissonance with heavy riffs and dark melodies encapsulated in a shroud of Death Metal. Inspired by games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne and World Of Warcraft, the lure of the dark and fantastical is always there for the blood thirsty…

…but they are not alone as when they take these songs live they will be joined by bassist Sylvain Maltais and here bring in Claine Lamb to add icy and dramatic piano flair to both “Pale” and “False God’s Hymn“. The opening cut is as dark as they come, a sample sounding like the voice in the head of a serial killer, alone in the dark in a prison cell, justifying actions over and over again. Sunshine Schneider possesses demonic unclean vocal prowess and sounds like he is calling from the other side of the void to hell’s gate from the very start as his chugging riffs bring the sinister overtones to each of these Blackened Death Metal cuts in turn, leaving no stone unturned and no place to hide as the monsters crawl from every direction to consume. The first two cuts may be short, sharp and dramatically tension filled but it is with “The Manipulated” that they really drive the nails into the coffin. Telling a tale of having a greater purpose with a predetermined path and inspired by Donnie Darko, meloncholic leads bring a sense of dark melody as the protagonist is manipulated by the dark during an onslaught of powerful rhythmic battery, the jackhammer footwork representing the chains that bind and drag the victim to the black depths. Guest vocalist Kaija Krimson joins for the hideous “Anguish“, but rather than the anticipated beauty and beast trade off, her shriller throat shredding venomous vocals have more in common with Lauren Hart from Once Human as the two voices go toe to toe to see who can spit the most blood. Dark, sinister and brooding, it’s meloncholia is reminiscent of works from the Nordic countries with a frostbitten quality to it as the pair of vocalists cathartically spill their inner tormented nature with a majestic quality that is strangely mythical. “False God’s Hymn” then shatters that self loathing illusion with a vitriolic violent prayer to a wrathful God to give death amid a bludgeing of heavy gauge riffs. The piano is the only light in the dark World of the blood thirsty Crown Of Madness and if they so desire long may they reign [8/10]

Track listing