Evoken – A Caress of the Void
“A Caress of the Void” is a monster of a death doom release. The progressions may be very slow to unveil themselves to the listener, but the payoff is a hopeless bludgeoning of de-tuned riff depression, augmented by clean guitar lines and the ever miserable death groans of John Paradiso. Bleak riffage erodes into meaty grooves and the non triggered/thick drum sound further pounds the intent of this music deeper into the soul. The last CD I’ve heard from this band was “Quietus”, which I liked, but felt was too heavily inspired by Disembowelment. “A Caress of the Void” is it’s own entity, easily one of the best albums from this genre I’ve heard in recent years. The bass guitar (Craig Pillard lends his talents on this) is audible throughout the whole album and it adds such a cavernous dimension to this material, no matter what emotion is being explored. Dynamics are key to “A Caress of the Void” and even though the songs creep along at a slug like pace, the structuring of sound is completely hypnotic, keeping me entranced by the deep layers that soak this material with atmosphere. 7 tracks, 61 mighty minutes of essential doom. –Marty
I HATE
Worm Gear 