Stortregn – Emptiness Fills the Void

Band: Stortregn
Title: Emptiness Fills the Voids
Label: Non Serviam Records
Release Date: May 25th, 2018
Country: Switzerland
Format reviewed: CD quality digital promo

Moment to cross the night observing the infinite sky and its countless stars. Our frantic heart fills with speed, adrenaline and the melody of the wind cuts our skin. Moment of listening to the new Stortregn album. The already veteran Geneva formation gives us its new full-length, a behemoth full of light and darkness alike, masterfully composed and executed. The world of Melodic Black/Death can rejoice again, because we are facing one of the best albums of 2018.

“Emptiness Fills the Void” is quite an achievement from a technical point of view. There really is nothing that can be reproached in the instrumental aspect. The ability of each of the members is noted at the moment of executing extremely complex passages with absolute mastery. We are talking about highly trained musicians here.

The drums of Samuel Jakubec give no respite throughout the journey. It is so technical, dynamic and precise that it seems almost inhuman! Vocals alternate between dark black shrieks and deep growls. The bass stands out, at times, interspersing harmonies like a tireless warrior in an eternal battle, but the absolute protagonists are the guitars, as it could not be otherwise in an album of the genre. And it is that Stortregn’s compositions are supported by a totally accurate and massive dual attack, elevating the compositions to stratospheric epic proportions. And I mention the composition factor because, ladies and gentlemen, we are facing a band that knows very well how to write songs that,
in their heroic and complex structures, stop being mere songs to become micro symphonies with a total purpose in the whole of the work.

“Emptiness Fills the Void” grows slowly, like a magnanimous crescendo, to lead to its last track (and the longest on the disc, of 11 minutes long) in a wonderful musical catharsis from another world. It is the moment in which one realizes that in the world of Stortregn nothing is left to chance.

It is an honor, in these times, to enjoy an album like this, in which you can appreciate the dedication, willingness and predisposition of each of the actors involved to achieve a result of such quality in the world of metal.I do not think I’m exaggerating when I say that Dissection has found a very worthy successor in Stortregn. And is that the band, even having a very own voice, moves away from mere homage and aesthetic clichés to invoke the true perfectionist spirit of Jon Andreas Nödtveidt, in a way rarely seen.

“Emptiness Fills the Void” is a spectacular work, full of mastery and quality, which will satisfy the most burning desires of lovers of the most technical and melodic metal. All a testament of virtuosity and talent without equal. 10/10 Sergio