Boötes Void "C.O.L.D." CD

Recorded in 2020 at Sounbath Productions in Rothenburg, Germany.

Cool bandname fellas! Being named after a supervoid in space gives Boötes Void an opportunity to say how empty they are without using another generic moniker, though all things considered they could probably have done better than C.O.L.D. as the title of their first full-length. However, what should be expected when your drummer is named Sagittarius? Hehe. To the point, the German quintet deliver straight up black metal on this 7 song offering, rather in the style of Mgła.
Not unlike the Boötes Void, the music on C.O.L.D. spends long periods in a fixed state. Sometimes that makes black metal hypnotic: here, it makes it driving. With the pace more or less fixed and few alterations from a blastbeat drumming style, the riffing and vocals tend to sweep in continuously like lashings of rain in a slightly undulating wind. Again, that might make certain releases monotonous, yet that even intensity works for these guys, dragging very long riffs like the later ones on ‘Imbolc’ across the horizon time and time again, achieved with very small shifts in drumming pattern or minimalistic guitar deviations. The guitars themselves offer hints of melody in those riffs, twining strands of desperation and hope in the glowering tremolo onslaught, producing that triumphant feel sometimes glimpsed even in the grimmest of Norway’s original bands.
Very little else needs to be said about C.O.L.D., because the songs are all cut from the same cloth and forsake anything like intros or interlude for more time spent on lightstream riffing that goes right up the centre. Of course, some of the songs break briefly for a minor passage of slower chords before setting off again, yet the time spent doing that seems insignificant compared to the 41 minute total. Puzzlingly, I don’t really tire of the formula, finding that the juxtaposition of croaking shrieks, more nuanced and pleasant riffing, plus lashings of fast drum work sate a hidden craving for a constant companion of sound. Boötes Void prove that an exercise in minimalism can hint at so much more, and I’m glad that I’m here to witness it.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...