Taste The Void - In Search For Light (2011)

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Wow, it seems that time flies even when you are not having fun. Quite a horrid period for your host on a personal level, so in a blink of an eye I realized that more than a week has passed since my last post. The low post counter drives me nuts, so I'll try and be more active after this entry.

"Taste The Void" is a quartet coming from Nantes, France. It has been quite a lot of time since I have had the privilege to be introduced to a French band and I was really excited about hearing this. Most of my readers know how much I praise this country for its screamo projects, but this time we have a post metal/hardcore band on our hands, showing how much the land has various tricks up its sleeve. Ok, I got a bit philosophical with this paragraph, but the excuse for such mumbling is that you really can't find a lot of info about this project, other than that it is a four piece and that they have just this release behind their backs, which came out on 2 February 2011. The mere fact that it is a French project should be enough to get you interested, trust me on that.
Getting a bit to the point, this release, named "In Search For Light", brings us two songs which combine into a fifteen minute giant. After a few seconds of distorted, scratching sounds greeting you at the beginning, you immediately realize how enormous this monster really is. The riffs are sluggish, yet extremely powerful, while the drums provide a persistent beating on all your senses, slightly reminding me of "Time To Burn" or "In The Final Analysis". If you listened to those bands then you will know how much chaotic and massive their sound is. Of course, everything is accompanied by quite a grim and sort of depressive tone, which pretty much justifies the name of the band. At times the mood is splashed with some very slow and gentle parts, harboring quite a lot of melancholy within.
The things I wrote thus far don't sound quite revolutionary when it comes to the genre "Taste The Void" is associated with. This may sound like a flaw, but hey, why would it be? The merits of this band are found in their skill to sculpt the genre in their own visage, which they managed to do quite well and in a lot of different ways. First of all, there is interesting variation when it comes to the vocal performance. Starting out as a screamed, raspy vocal, the voice morphs in the course of the songs into gentle and quite clean singing. Other times however, it becomes a near humming like sound, which is very interesting, since it provides a unbelievable amount of contrast to the music. For instance in the first song, the first time you get to hear that soothing singing the music keeps the dark and brooding tone, which actually makes quite an eerie atmosphere.
Aside of the vocal, the very music itself is extremely interesting. Despite the fact that it clings to the, I'll use the brutal word, "cliches" of the genres, it provides a score of unique details. One of the aces really sprout out of the songs and hit me in the head, that being the fact that amid all of the chaos there is a specific repetitive tone which connects everything together. This is somehow omnipresent for the duration of a specific track and it kinda gives a flowing feel to the tunes. The existence of something like that is a very good composition move, since the songs in general provide a lot of variation in the form of tempo changes, different riffs and rapid mood shifts, so if there was nothing holding all of this together we would have an entirely different tag for this band.
Usually when it comes to bands like this I need to find myself in a specific mood to be able to listen, but thanks to the flowing yet sluggish shifting melodies of "Taste The Void", the band managed to completely grasp my attention without any personal adjustments. They definitely succeed in tickling your interest with the initial entry into your player and that is quite a rare trait. Overall, I enjoyed this release a lot and would really like to see some more work from these four dudes. My sincere recommendations go to all of you to take a listen to this band, since I absolutely stand by the statement that you won't regret it. In case you want to throw just a glance, you can check them out on their facebook page here or on their bandcamp page here. The bandcamp profile also contains a video of their live performance, so be sure to drop by and view it. Also, the posted download link in this review is courtesy of the band. Enjoy!