Desperate Truth

From the Far East comes this colossal meeting of underground forces, China’s AreaDeath Productions have teamed up with Japan’s legendary metal squad Voidd for a truly joyous release for fans of old school death metal. As usual, AreaDeath have taken a truly underrated underground classic and have given it a complete makeover with new artwork, photos and lyrics, and a second disk containing all of Voidd’s demo recordings. There is a lot of great music on tap here, so let’s jump right in with the original Evil Records lp, 1993’s Desperate Truth.

Unlike many of their peers in the death metal underground, who in the early nineties were moving into realms of increasing sophistication and brutality, Voidd were taking influence from the primordial death thrash that had first inspired the genre. There is no shortage of brutality on hand, though Voidd do seem to have had more in common with Teutonic thrashers like Sodom and Kreator than many of their many of their peers in the death metal scene. Rather than just bludgeon, the songs tend to focus on creating riffs that are catchy and memorable, while still ripping fast. Much of the bands heaviness comes from their speed, which isn’t over the top, but is still easily headbangable, opting for mostly thrash beats instead of straight blasting. Album opener “Black Fate” is an excellent example of their overall style, using Bathory-esque thrash riffs which build to melodic chorus riff that’s hard to get out of your head.

Though their material is fairly simple, Voidd know how to add creative elements within their songs to make them stand apart from their mostly old school influences. The chugging opening riff to “Evil Death” gives way to sudden eerie acoustic guitars before heading into blasting territory. Windy atmospherics and some gentle classical guitar add serious flavor to “Cult of the Dead”, while “Ragged Wings” employs more of a d-beat feel to some of the riffing. “Total Mayhem” serves up some of the catchiest riffing anywhere on the album, and like “Black Fate” has a chorus that is just hard not to scream along with. Guitarist/vocalist Okazzy utilizes a mid-range shouting roar that perfectly fits the band’s sound, as it is somewhere between a scream and a growl that harkens back to the days of metal vocalists pushing the envelope, searching for the harsher sounds which would encompass the genre in later years. Production on the album is very clear, with excellent balancing of all instruments and good tones all around. The only real problem is the drums, which have an almost popping sound to them, which can at times reveal weaknesses in the drummer’s performance. He is not overtly sloppy, but does sometimes play slightly behind the beat, and the popping tones can make it sound like mistakes.

As if the album wasn't enough, the second disk offers up over an hour of additional recordings, with compilation appearances as well as all their demos. There are several songs not featured on the album, as well as multiple versions of songs that would end up on Desperate Truth. It is interesting to see how some of the songs evolve, such as “Evil Death” which in its demo states contains distorted noise chords on one version and one strum clean chords in another, which would transform into the classical guitar section on the album. Of particular interest are three more versions of album highlight “Black Fate” which was re-recorded for every Voidd demo release culminating with the epic take that would make the album. Strangely enough, the song is re-titled “Farewell” on the second demo, but then changed back for the third. All of the demos feature very different line-ups, and along with the varying recording quality, gives the listener a chance to view Voidd’s progress throughout their early years.

The album would be good enough on its own, but the bonus material and packaging turn this into a spectacular re-release. The booklet contains full lyrics, with the original artwork used for each release, as well as a foreword from Gezol of Sabbat and Evil records, who were Voidd’s partners in crime throughout their early existence. After Desperate Truth, Voidd would drastically change their style, leaving their legacy of quality death metal behind them. It’s a shame they never produced more albums like this, but at least AreaDeath saw fit to properly memorialize a true juggernaut of Japanese underground music.