Review by Jeger on February 7, 2025.

Let the tears fall because nothing grows without water. Tell that to a depressed person… Some of us endure while others just give up, toss in the ole towel, raise the white flag! Shoot themselves in the head… There's a special place within the world of art for the depressive. It can be found in obscure places like out on the fringes of an extreme metal sub-genre or in some Bohemian starving artist douche bag's studio downtown. Wherever it's found, It feels like home to the afflicted, like that bizarre sliver of comfort we feel during times of not even being able to get out of fucking bed. Artists representing a myriad of genres over the decades, from Johnny Cash to Trent Reznor have been creating music that is inspired by negative emotions or suffering, and it's been cute, but if you really want to get down to the bottom of it, to the heart of the matter, down to where it really smarts then you go straight to the finest dark art - the great craft of black metal.

Depressive/suicidal black metal is some of the most striking music the genre has to offer. Advent Sorrow's "As All Light Leaves Her" is the greatest in my opinion. There's so much beauty in the concept of just giving up and letting go. The freedom of it and that final release from it all. And these liberating sentiments are enriched with black metal of a most elegant quality: the soul, the melody and even the drama of it all is simply irresistible. Naturally, the Finns do melancholy better than anyone. It's dark most of the time, alcoholism and domestic violence are common in many parts of the country and people are just cold a lot. It's a depressing place to live if you're not insane like Alexi Laiho. Finland is home to some of the world's finest black metal bands; a tradition that began in 1989 - 1990 with the formation of Archgoat, Impaled Nazarene, Beherit and Barathrum.

Well into the future now and far beyond the olde days into a time where Suomi black metal domination is the norm. There's not much to be known about Finland's Void of Hope. They are not an anonymous band but the members don't really feel that the revealing of their identities on an album sleeve is important, they're inspired by depressive bands like Lifelover and Coldworld, and their debut Proof Of Existence LP (01/21/25 Avantgarde Music) was recorded in some shit hole somewhere out in the freezing darkness of Finland over the span of five days is what you now know. What I know going in is that Proof Of Existence is a weapon of a black metal record. Is it still considered a weapon if you use it on yourself? Anyway, no two tracks sound the same and the torqued flow of the titular track alone - its grooves hypnotizing and its Urgehal-like grime permeating into what becomes a most volatile sonic environment alive with all sorts of creepy shit - is pure shit-kicking good times. Not really depressive at all, more than that now, transcending the abyss of suicidal ideation into the azure of epic fucking black metal…

Like the soundtrack to someone's life weeks leading up to the point when that person decides to jump off of a bridge… Drama, sorrow, bitterness, sickness and dread incarnate, but with a hint of this almost Mastodon - "Crack the Skye" type of epic prog flavor in "The Hollow Hymn" to fan the flames of perdition into a blaze before some really disturbing cinematic parts unfold during "Inner Peace". Great job with the aesthetic and what a brilliant piece. Depressive as fuck, but in ways that supersede the typical depressive BM stuff by a light year or more. There's power here, passion and catharsis, but moreover there's cohesion. It's like they've been at it together for decades. A journey of a record but an exciting one. Edge of your seat as you travel at tortuous speeds through diseased psyche one minute and plummeted into a depressive quagmire the next as oppressive tremolo riffs and dense blast-beats literally beat you into fetal position.

You remember that time you met that dude at the bar and just hit it off? Bro vibes all night and just big balls swinging, but then you never saw the dude again? This is like that. Just in love with this thing off the break. Definitely not your conventional depressive black metal album, definitely not a textbook Finnish BM endeavor either. No Satanic Warmaster vibes or Horna juju, only marching through the depths of sadness and scaling the heights of redemption's promise - a modern dark arts specimen of a black metal album. Put it on if you wanna either get all epic on everyone or hang yourself. The choice is yours...

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Review by Jeger on February 7, 2025.

Let the tears fall because nothing grows without water. Tell that to a depressed person… Some of us endure while others just give up, toss in the ole towel, raise the white flag! Shoot themselves in the head… There's a special place within the world of art for the depressive. It can be found in obscure places like out on the fringes of an extreme metal sub-genre or in some Bohemian starving artist douche bag's studio downtown. Wherever it's found, It feels like home to the afflicted, like that bizarre sliver of comfort we feel during times of not even being able to get out of fucking bed. Artists representing a myriad of genres over the decades, from Johnny Cash to Trent Reznor have been creating music that is inspired by negative emotions or suffering, and it's been cute, but if you really want to get down to the bottom of it, to the heart of the matter, down to where it really smarts then you go straight to the finest dark art - the great craft of black metal.

Depressive/suicidal black metal is some of the most striking music the genre has to offer. Advent Sorrow's "As All Light Leaves Her" is the greatest in my opinion. There's so much beauty in the concept of just giving up and letting go. The freedom of it and that final release from it all. And these liberating sentiments are enriched with black metal of a most elegant quality: the soul, the melody and even the drama of it all is simply irresistible. Naturally, the Finns do melancholy better than anyone. It's dark most of the time, alcoholism and domestic violence are common in many parts of the country and people are just cold a lot. It's a depressing place to live if you're not insane like Alexi Laiho. Finland is home to some of the world's finest black metal bands; a tradition that began in 1989 - 1990 with the formation of Archgoat, Impaled Nazarene, Beherit and Barathrum.

Well into the future now and far beyond the olde days into a time where Suomi black metal domination is the norm. There's not much to be known about Finland's Void of Hope. They are not an anonymous band but the members don't really feel that the revealing of their identities on an album sleeve is important, they're inspired by depressive bands like Lifelover and Coldworld, and their debut Proof Of Existence LP (01/21/25 Avantgarde Music) was recorded in some shit hole somewhere out in the freezing darkness of Finland over the span of five days is what you now know. What I know going in is that Proof Of Existence is a weapon of a black metal record. Is it still considered a weapon if you use it on yourself? Anyway, no two tracks sound the same and the torqued flow of the titular track alone - its grooves hypnotizing and its Urgehal-like grime permeating into what becomes a most volatile sonic environment alive with all sorts of creepy shit - is pure shit-kicking good times. Not really depressive at all, more than that now, transcending the abyss of suicidal ideation into the azure of epic fucking black metal…

Like the soundtrack to someone's life weeks leading up to the point when that person decides to jump off of a bridge… Drama, sorrow, bitterness, sickness and dread incarnate, but with a hint of this almost Mastodon - "Crack the Skye" type of epic prog flavor in "The Hollow Hymn" to fan the flames of perdition into a blaze before some really disturbing cinematic parts unfold during "Inner Peace". Great job with the aesthetic and what a brilliant piece. Depressive as fuck, but in ways that supersede the typical depressive BM stuff by a light year or more. There's power here, passion and catharsis, but moreover there's cohesion. It's like they've been at it together for decades. A journey of a record but an exciting one. Edge of your seat as you travel at tortuous speeds through diseased psyche one minute and plummeted into a depressive quagmire the next as oppressive tremolo riffs and dense blast-beats literally beat you into fetal position.

You remember that time you met that dude at the bar and just hit it off? Bro vibes all night and just big balls swinging, but then you never saw the dude again? This is like that. Just in love with this thing off the break. Definitely not your conventional depressive black metal album, definitely not a textbook Finnish BM endeavor either. No Satanic Warmaster vibes or Horna juju, only marching through the depths of sadness and scaling the heights of redemption's promise - a modern dark arts specimen of a black metal album. Put it on if you wanna either get all epic on everyone or hang yourself. The choice is yours...

Rating: 9.5 out of 10