Not for the casual listener

Black metal is a curious genre, and Sweden’s band Craft is back to satisfy just a little more of that curiosity with their latest album, Void.

The uniqueness of black metal lies in its relationship with its fans. Metal listeners, a group known for their discerning taste and quickness to point out anything disingenuous, are perfectly in harmony with black metal, a genre whose vocalists are primarily concerned with sounding as evil as possible.

Craft is no exception, as the offerings on Void aren’t exactly accessible, even to a lot of metal fans.

However, fans of bands like Burzum, Darkthrone and Thou will find their needs met with a fine array of lo-fi production and stomach-quaking guttural roars throughout the affair. Tracks like “Serpent Soul” and the title track “Void” round all the black metal bases: nasty, otherworldly snarls over groaning guitars and sharp-edged riffs, with bare-bones production. The title track clocks in at over eight minutes—a fine black metal length.

Void is enough to turn off many a casual listener, but such is the beauty of black metal (or power electronics, or some ambient music). This music is not for the casual listener. Many self-proclaimed metal-heads would scoff at the quality of the recordings on Void.

This proves the diversity and convolution of metal as a whole—many kinds of fans can coexist under the same genre-wide umbrella.

Black metal is a special case. Black (and death) metal bands wholly strive for complicated rhythm and song structure with lyrics that tempt the listener, lull them to the dark side. This is especially true with black metal, as the production is often “given up,” so to speak, in favor of providing the listener with a theatrical performance via sound.

With grungy, raspy-sounding music, a backdrop is painted for the listener whether they like it or not. Our nightmares are not in high fidelity. Neither is Craft’s Void.

A perfect representation of this is the bluntly titled “I Want to Commit Murder,” a plodding dirge that repeats the titular line way too often for the listener to remain comfortable.

Void, like many black metal records before it, creates an unnerving atmosphere with the bare essentials. The lyrics are enough to make you cringe (in a good way), and any fan of black metal should enjoy it. For the casual listener, use this as your stepping stone to stuff that is only released on cassette and won’t sell to self-proclaimed Christians (no kidding, it’s out there).