Antithesis [CD]【Japan Edition w/ OBI】

Black Void is nihilistic aggression and desperation in the form of music. Furious and unrepentant in attitude, it builds on the philosophical works of Friedrich Nietzsche, burning with the filthy flame of punk and black metal.

“When it’s impossible to find a starting point for knowledge, how can there be any kind of ethics? How can anyone argue that morality exists?

How can we claim to know anything at all?”

In the midst of this dirty metaphysical whirlwind stands vocalist and bass player Lars Are Nedland, longtime member of Borknagar and Solefald, and the driving force of melodic hard rock band White Void. Spearheading a trio completed by drummer Tobias Solbakk (Ihsahn, White Void, In Vain) and guitarist Jostein Thomassen (Borknagar, Profane Burial), he sets the stage for Black Void to be everything that White Void is not: Monochrome, nihilistic, filthy, violent and raw.

“Life should be rejected

Death should be rejected

It all should be rejected”

Black Void, then, is the flipside of White Void: A full-on rejection of the philosophy of Albert Camus, a fullon rejection of a soft, melodic approach in music and a full-on rejection of a playful, tongue-in-cheek attitude. Black Void has the sensitivity of a buzz-saw and the light-heartedness of a funeral agent. With that as a backdrop, “Antithesis” becomes an album that pays respect to fifty years of punk and forty years of black metal, sounding like a punk with a mohawk fighting a dude in corpsepaint as it races along.

Add to that guest vocal appearances by black metal royalties Sakis Tolis of Rotting Christ and Hoest of Taake, “Antithesis” appears as a statement of sorts: A nihilistic musical outburst flipping off morality and hailing aggression while at the same time forcing your foot to tap to its relentless drive. It’s all in the black and white.