Review by JD on December 28, 2012.

Slow. Pondering and brutally heavy metal... that to me is the apodeme of heaven. I am always up to finding another Doom or Stoner Metal album to add to my growing collection of slow moving explosions. I think that I have found one that I can proudly add to my mélange of melancholy without much pondering. Italy’s Void Of Sleep.

Being a relatively new band (one other release) Void Of Sleep is a technical blueprint for making some of the heaviest and yet melodic Doom/Stoner metal. With real melodies and granite strong riffs, they pull out some of the most memorably written music that this genre ever has produced while still being accessible for all of the metal hoards out there.

With so many good tracks populating this CD, none of them seem to jump out and be better than any other... so I just pick them all because of the combined strength they seem to have. You can't go wrong with any of them, from the opening groove heaviness of 'Blood On My Hands' to an incredible song called 'Sons Of Nothing' that seems to be a Doomy blending of Pink Floyd and Rush with very barbarically heavy sort of metal overtures. It is this sort of writing, adding in so many differing influences, that makes a band stand out in the crowd of others clambering for notice.

Being that "Tales Between Reality And Madness" is slated for a January 2013 release is a bummer... this very well could be my number one album of the year. I kind of think that next year, Void Of Sleep will be my number one... but it still sucks that this album cannot be included in my top ten headbangingest metal albums for 2012.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 10
Atmosphere: 10
Production: 9.5
Originality:10
Overall: 10

Rating: 9.9 out of 10