Illuminated Manuscripts / Deathvoid

Illuminated Manuscripts and Deathvoid are two black metal bands who both happen to have change their country of origin. The former from the Baltic state of Estonia to neighboring Russia and the latter moved from Switzerland to neighboring Italy. Both bands also play a very common variation of raw black metal tinged with atmospheric and depressive black metal vibes. Each band gets two songs to display on this release, and the total run time for this release is around twenty minutes in total. So, without further ado, let's proceed with the review.

The first band that gets the chance to show their music are Illuminated Manuscripts. The band doesn't use vocals in their music so both songs are instrumental. The absence of vocals can work in both a good and a bad way. At times, the lack of vocals allow the music to completely take the centrefold and it also might buy some time for the band to find a vocalist or improve their current vocal skills. Unfortunately, however, sometimes the music on its own just doesn't manage to cut it and can make the entire listening experience extremely boring. In Illuminated Manuscripts, I believe the absence of vocals suits the music very well. In general, both songs are mid-paced and show a lot of funeral-doom and depressive black metal elements. The second song has some shoegaze vibes but in general, the music never stops being oppressive and grim. This half of the split release is quite entertaining for what it is, but there is definitely nothing that stands out.

The second half of the release is occupied by Deathvoid. Unfortunately, this is where the release loses its momentum. Deathvoid plays black metal in the style of bands such as Ostie and Zarach Baal Tharagh. What this basically means is that the music is produced terribly and cannot truly be listened to correctly. The guitars and the drums sound extremely distant and muffled and most of the times you can barely make out anything at all from what you're listening. The keyboards are the saving grace for this band. Although they sound terrible, they kind of create a very haunting vibe unlike the rest of the instruments which can only express themselves chaotically.

Overall, this split release is quite a decent album. The first ten minutes of the release occupied by Illuminated Manuscripts, is definitely the strong half of this release. Unfortunately for Deathvoid, they didn't put enough emphasis on the importance of the production, even in raw black metal and drone. There is a fine line between a song being noisy and being considered as "noise"..Deathvoid's half is just noisy generic black metal that lacks any sort of focus.