Void Ritual: U Jam?

Like you, I spent Wednesday cranking the new jam by 1349. Ever on guard against burn-out, I avoided just clicking play over and over (and over) on “Cauldron” and instead peppered my blast sesh with other fresh rippers. That’s just good strategy, thank you very much, though tactics might falter in the face of 1349’s awesomeness. After all, weak shit would drag down my vibe! So what could hang with “Cauldron” as a kinda opening act for repeat listens, like fries to 1349’s burger?

One answer is Void Ritual’s Holodomor, a black metal mini-epic as chilling as a documentary of war atrocity. The term “holodomor” means something like “extermination by hunger” and refers to one of those episodes in history where ideology attempted to overpower reality, and therefore like four million citizens of Ukraine starved to death in a couple years. It’s with abject despair that this horror is beheld by Void Ritual; there’s no hint of BM’s awe for destruction or its celebration of the beast in man. Rather, it seems like Holodomor‘s creator — VR’s Daniel Jackson (also of Ancestral Oath) — feels something akin to this senseless deathfest in himself, though probably in spirit and not in scale. Whatever’s crushing him crushes you too. U jam?

Void Ritual’s Holodomor came out on cassette Tuesday via Tridroid with a bonus track! Order here.