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Dying Light (2016) is the debut full-length album by US black metal act Void Omnia. The band previously released a self-titled demo in 2014 as a trio but have expanded their line-up a great deal with guitarist Mike Jochimsen handing over the bass and drum duties to new members Justin Ennis and Cody Stein respectively. Of their older songs a familiar title appears on Dying Light, Of Time, but it only takes one glance to see that the Of Time from the demo is a very different track to the Of Time that has made it to the album, as the demo song was 3:49 in length while the album song is 9:39. The bigger change though having listened to them both is that the song now has vocals.
With its cosmic looking cover artwork one might expect Dying Light to be an atmospheric affair along the lines of the likes of other artists that employ such imagery, of which there seems to be a growing number of in the last few years, such as Mare Cognitum and Mesarthim. That couldn't be much further from the truth though, as in Dying Light we find a rather more traditionally styled black metal album packed with fast paced aggression and a harsh production job to go with it. Many black metal acts of this style seem to aim for a cold, raw atmosphere but while Dying Light is far from polished the overall effect that Void Omnia have here is quite different. It's a barrage of sound that seems designed to hit and hit hard, a trait more common in other forms of extreme metal than black metal. With just five tracks of mostly fairly long composition, middle song Singularity aside, for a total of about 35 minutes of music, it isn't an album that outstays its welcome. The length feels about right for the kind of music Void Omnia offer up.
It's not all an assault of raw fury though. Void Omnia have left some room for melody in their music, though there are times when it does unfortunately get a bit lost within the murky production. The second track Fallowed Remembrance offers up some passages which seem to hint at some more atmospheric inclinations than the bulk of the album would suggest the band to be interested in. Later on finale Emptied Heartless offers a surprise by slowing the tempo down considerably for a time, which turns Void Omnia's music into something far more brooding and heavy, possibly hinting at a doom metal influence as well, before cranking things back up to their usual gear. Dying Light is the kind of black metal album that on the surface seems to be a one trick pony, but delving deeper will reveal some subtle hidden depths that adds identity to the band's tracks.
Dying Light isn't the kind of release that looks to reinvent the wheel, but what Void Omnia do, they do very convincingly, especially for a debut album. I've heard their demo as well and I'd say that this is a definite step up – a damn fine black metal release that will surely find a wide appeal among the genre's devotees.