Following two EPs and on the back of a growing live presence across the UK comes Glasgow six-piece Void of Light‘s debut full-length album Asymmetries.
Monolithic in its scale, atmospheric in its build, and cathartic in its nature, the album is a post-metal force that draws from a wide-reaching pool of influences ranging from ambient to death metal. The five tracks on this album are compositions which show off the talents of all band members: the tectonic foundations of the rhythm section, the texture, resonance, and weight of the three guitars, the dual vocals working both for and against each other, and the lyrics that are pointed and personal. This is a formidable album which the band have taken time to craft; where nothing is rushed or half-formed, everything is done with precision and meaning.
The album begins with the shimmering and hypnotic “The Passing Hours”, whose opening riff is quite frankly one of the most catchy I can remember from recent times. I can guarantee you’ll be humming it for a while, and there aren’t many post-metal tracks you can say that about. One of the standouts from this album that you get early on is the sheer breadth of influences the band are pulling from. This song feels as though it comes from a different realm of post-metal. From the ambient atmospheric opening, which gives way to riffs that increase in weight until you suffocate, whose tempo changes from sludge to almost thrash, the bass which brings with it a real deep doom-laden feel, the unforgiving drums that add some groove to the mix, and the vocal parts that almost feel religious in their repetition. You aren’t getting “post-metal 101”. This opening track is a 10-minute earworm and from that moment the album’s hooks are in you and there’s no going back – you’re off on the journey. There is a brief let-up in parts where a softer guitar or cleaner vocals come into sharp focus, offering some light, but for the most part it’s dense, dark, weighty brutality. For the majority of bands, this one song would be an album’s worth of ideas and material, but here we’re only scratching the surface.
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“Silver Mask” and “Ends” bring the band’s vocal talents right to the forefront, with both Ali Lauder and Marc Carey getting the chance to show what they can do. First on “Silver Mask”, a song built on a palpable sense of dread with the music setting the tone and the heavy visceral growls adding extra abrasive layers to this. Towards the end there’s a vocal shift, and we hear a softer, cleaner style which builds and builds to a ritualistic chant-like state. While not as heavy as the growls from early in the song, it feels no less ominous. The skill the band have here of using both ends of the vocal spectrum to convey a dark aggression and deep emotion is quite something, and again shows more than the standard post-metal tricks. “Ends” doesn’t allow time for any type of build; it’s frantic from the very start – a full-on musical assault. Around the halfway mark it doubles down with some heavy, heavy vocals that wouldn’t be out of place in the most heinous of death metal songs. It really can’t be understated just how good the vocals are on this album, and sometimes in this genre that can be lost under intricate instrumentation or simply forgotten about and brushed aside to focus on other things. Void of Light aren’t giving half measures here.
While it feels unfair to the four other tracks on the album, “Still The Night Skies” is the high point. The intro is built around an intense, almost anxiety-inducing bass that could take you anywhere. A slow and steady burner, the song pulses along quite nicely growing in ferocity before the inevitable destruction of everything that has been building and it crashing down around you. Not only in the music here, but the emotional weight of the lyrics feels equally as heavy. This emotion is further highlighted through a softer part towards the end of the song. At every twist and turn of this song, you’re left thinking that it has reached its peak, before something else is revealed and it reaches new heights. On the final song “Mirroring”, whatever music and emotion the band has left comes flooding out and they make sure there’s nothing left on the table. The song goes full tilt from the very start and brings the album to a close with an introspection and a look inwards.
Asymmetries is a massive album contained in just five songs. In making it, Void of Light have constructed something so vast, so massive but at the same time personal, and at times delicate. I could do some lazy comparisons to end the review and send everyone on their way – compare the band and this album to post-metal greats and the other tropes, but they don’t need that and it would do the band a great disservice. Of course there’s influences and nods to the greats of the genre, but there’s more in this album that is entirely their own and you won’t find in any other places. This is an album that you’ll listen to more than once, because it draws you back and every time you come back, it’ll reveal something else.
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Asymmetries will be released on 4th April.
Album launch at The Flying Duck in Glasgow will take place on 11th April 2026.
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