Deathless Void – The Voluptuous Fires Of Sin Review

Welcome, all, to the thirstiest extreme metal album of 2024. Amsterdam’s Deathless Void straight up named their album The Voluptuous Fires of Sin, which I can only imagine is about the impure thoughts that went through your head the first time you saw Christina Hendricks in a red dress on Mad Men. Understandable. But it isn’t just the album title; other songs are named “Vortex Climax,” “The Ecstasy of Sin,” “Crossing the Threshold” (bit of a stretch there)… you get it. On one hand, someone tell these Dutchmen to take some cold showers already. On the other, what’s wrong with being sexy?

Kidding aside, Deathless Void isn’t exactly playing the type of music you associate with the implied topic, so there may have been some liberties taken with that initial interpretation. (Narrator: “There were.”) What they do deliver is some fiery, malevolent, and pretty relentless black/death, and their whopper of a 2022 demo proved that they came out of the chute pretty adept at their craft. This also isn’t the churning wall-of-sound form of the style either; these boys want to hurt you, and they do so with pummeling riffs and trills and tremolo lines that are as lava hot as they are razor sharp, extremely hateful vocals, a generally cacophonic tendency, and the type of drumming that makes you wonder how the guy behind the kit doesn’t wear himself out after a single song.

“Psychedelic Warfare” kicks things off and basically lets you know what this band is all about: those tremolo riffs cut through everything in their path, channeling De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas but accompanied by drums that roll and blast and crash and thud and roll (and roll) all over the place. It’s so intense you’d think Inferno himself was behind the kit, not Joris Nijenhuis of **checks notes** Atrocity and… Leaves’ Eyes? Good drummers get work everywhere, eh? Indeed, and Nijenhuis is the engine that keeps The Voluptuous Fires of Sin working at full power throughout. The Inferno comparison wasn’t just for giggles; Nijenhuis brings an Azarath-level ferocity to this record.

That ferocity reaches its peak on songs like “The Shattered Realms Of Man Become The Abyss” and “Curse Upon You.” The former adds a touch of Deathspell Omega to the mix, largely in the form of some dissonance and the vocal delivery of Michael Bertoldini (“Rejoice! The time has come!” will give you some Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice flashbacks), but never loses that desire to hit as hard as possible as much as possible. As the closer, the latter contains as much shredding intensity as anything here, but crucially makes sure to hammer home the vibe that there isn’t some resolution or happy ending to this story.

And that’s just the point. For all the violence of this record ‒ and there’s a lot of violence ‒ there’s also an almost irresistible atmosphere to it all. It’s caustic and absolutely evil, to be sure, but it’s also oddly welcoming, even if it’s also damning, and isn’t that exactly why we listen to music like this? There’s a moment in “Burning Shapes Without Form” when the onslaught eases up, leaving the tremolo lines floating over a simpler drum beat and that sinister aura, as if unknown arms are reaching out to welcome you in some malignant embrace. With material this strong, you’ll keep coming back to this fiery realm over and over.

Very strong and extremely unwholesome fun, this one.