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Trancelike Void > Destroying Something Beautiful > Reviews
Trancelike Void - Destroying Something Beautiful

Music's potential and beauty remain dormant - 60%

NausikaDalazBlindaz, July 14th, 2014

I haven't always been kind to Trancelike Void in past reviews but I'm always willing to give these guys another chance. Especially when several years ago they released something called "Destroying Something Beautiful" - now here's a case of an album that you hope does not live up to its name apart from its theme of depression and the emptiness of living a life devoid of hope and brightness. For the most part, the music indeed does have a good hypnotic buzzing sound, not laid on too thickly but with enough edge so that the pain and anguish of a life in torment make a deep impression on listeners.

The album begins solidly with a quiet prelude and the peaceful and hypnotic if monotonous first movement "Everything Fails" which I interpret as setting the scene by plunging the listener fully into the guitar noise soup. The buzzy showers fall over your head and cover your senses fully, and the sinuous bass line coils around your brain cells, promising support yet always letting go and allowing your sense of balance to go into free-fall. If there is any criticism to be made of this part of the album, it is that the drum machine is flat, unvarying and intrusive: nothing more than a time-keeping device which rather spoils the flow and timeless nature of the guitar waterfalls.

"Fragile Consciousness" is slightly better with more variation in the drumming and riffing but it's still very repetitive, slow and lumbering. If the drumming were faster and the bass guitar were more upfront in the mix, the music would be more energetic and sound focused, relieving the monotony a bit. As it is, the track isn't bad but its atmospheric and dramatic potential remains dormant. Listeners hoping for something very different in the third and final section of the album will be disappointed: the drums continue in much the same lacklustre and lumbering style as before, interrupting the flow of the music for little reason other than to mark time and give some structure to the music.

For all its efforts, the album's most interesting moments turn out to be its brief interludes which are darkly mysterious, brooding and sinister with hints of derangement in the piano runs shrouded in echo and ambience. The vocals wherever they appear are highly distorted to the point of being an evil inhuman presence that arises spontaneously from the churning guitar noise grind to spit venom and then melts back again. The bass probably has the most interesting time wandering where it will but it's buried quite deeply in the music and is sensed more as an ominous shadow than heard.

Musically this album is not so much a case of destroying something beautiful as it is of not doing very much good with the instruments and music elements and structures in the first place. The percussion is allowed too much dominance in the proceedings as mainly a time-keeper and a dull one at that. Riffs and melodies have to shape themselves around the beats and the music gives the impression of not flowing as smoothly as it might actually be doing. If Trancelike Void could give up the drum machines and allow the BM music to roam as freely as the more ambient instrumental sections do, this debut album would have been a lot more mesmerising and absorbing, and its beauty would truly be on display.

The Sigur Rós of black metal. - 90%

TheDoorToDeceit, February 7th, 2010

If there were a Sigur Ros in the world of black metal, it would undoubtedly be Trancelike Void. While the music isn't necessarily shoegaze or post-rock influenced, it certainly has an uplifting and otherworldly air about it and is about as repetitive and minimal as it comes, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The repetition gives the cloud in which we float over top of the melodic fringe that “S.” creates to form. There's nothing extraordinarily inventive or original about 'Destroying Something Beautiful' other than his fearless attitude towards creating music so perceivably and blatantly atmospheric on an only moderately depressive level. Truthfully, the guitar riffs throughout the album seem more warmly reflective than cold and depressive, but one should accept that that is for the interpreter to decide.

There's not much to tell on Trancelike Void. Obviously a fan of Nortt, this duo hails from Belgium and enjoy a rather anonymous identification in their music, though it is known that they both take part in another depressive black metal project, Kilte, as well as some other projects. Past that, the band is approximately two years old and have released a split with Bosse and an EP in addition to this full length. Needless to say, especially with all the “interludes” and such, that the band has an affinity for dark ambient and nearly meditative or peaceful lush sound layers.

Again, it should be mentioned that there is something strangely uplifting and peaceful about the music Trancelike Void puts out. While most depressive acts seek to bury you and suffocate you under intense emotional trauma, Trancelike Void brings you up compellingly, letting you float on their aura, but sadly, as the music ends, its not a soft landing. You'll find yourself wanting more, feeling that the only wrong this album did anyone was being too short. As far as black metal / dark ambient hybrids go, this one is every bit as good as anything else out there on the market, and they have the ability to continue on with their anonymity. Something characters like Christopher Ziegler no longer possess. Recommended.

Destroys The Beauty. - 80%

Perplexed_Sjel, September 7th, 2008

People often say once you’ve heard one depressive black metal band, you’ve heard them all. I can see some truth to this statement, however, it does not stop me from examining the best that the field has to offer. Whilst I wouldn’t consider this Belgian band to be THE best, or even close to the best, I do concede that the effort put in front of us in the form of the aptly titled ‘Destroying Something Beautiful’ is a promising start to the career of this two man band who have ties to the now infamous Kilte. The interestingly named, ‘Trancelike Void’ are one of the clever few in a sub-genre riddled with lame re-enactments of the past. ‘Burzum clones’ or ‘Darkthrone rip-offs’, as they are occasionally tagged, dominant the scene nowadays which leaves many fans feeling just a tad annoyed at the lack of talent, or even ambition of most bands in the modern day scene. It’s the lesser known bands, like Trancelike Void, who seem to be putting in the work in order to stop the sub-genre of depressive black metal coming to a halt altogether.

The one minor negative that one can automatically distinguish from the offset, is the fact that the record consists of more instrumental, or filler tracks than it does regular songs. The ration of 4 instrumental tracks to 3 much lengthier tracks does not bode well for me, on a personal level because I enjoy long songs and thus, long records. However, this minor aspect of ‘Destroying Something Beautiful’ can be easily overlooked as when one delves deeper into the record, one understands that there is a definitive purpose behind the instrumental songs which, in fact, link the remaining songs very well. To me, this record is very metaphorical. In my mind, the instrumental tracks represent the something beautiful that the regular tracks must then destroy in order to live up to the records hard-hitting name. For instance, take the first interlude which is aptly titled ‘Daydream‘. It’s amazingly beautiful in it’s dazzling ambience that builds the other side of the spectrum in terms of the emotional content. The interludes possess certain qualities in there soundscapes that sound other worldly, or even aquatic. It is like the listener is being taken on their own individual and personal journey under water to explore the world that exists beneath our very feet that we often forget about, or neglect. On the surface, the interludes seem to unjustly outweigh the regular songs that have been placed on the record, but the man behind the work have taken a great deal of time in thinking about the order of the songs, this shows both a good sense of what the audience requires in a black metal record and solid musicianship. The composition behind the interludes, in particular, is astounding.

The mixture of emotive textures and tones is enough to keep most black metal fans, regardless of whether they like or dislike the depressive sub-genre, interested and intrigued. The metaphorical nature and value of ‘Destroying Something Beautiful’ is what makes this effort as interesting as it is. While the instrumental songs, as previously stated, build the beauty in the soundscapes, the full length tracks destroy them, this is where the links are connected. The beauty of the instrumental songs are places side-by-side with the desolation that the remaining songs drag into our picture frame. The conjurations of such songs like ‘Everything Fails’, ‘Fragile Consciousness’ and the most aptly titled track of all, ‘Total Desolation’ reveal to the audience, both repetitively and slowly like a blackened funeral doom band would do, that this record also has a dark side, one which isn’t afraid to impose itself on the soundscapes, which in turn, benefit from such an occurrence. One would think that a black metal record composed of bleak rasping vocals, repetitive tremolo based guitars and ambient interludes would serve only as a reminder of what is wrong with the sub-genre’s of today, but ‘Destroying Something Beautiful’ does the opposite. Essentially, the musicianship is what makes this an interesting listen. If it were not for the high standards in composition and arrangements, this could quite easily have been just another depressive black metal record for the shelves. The juxtaposed soundscapes which delve deeply into both beauty and destruction are a perfect match for one another. Man being the destructive creature that it is should have no problem identifying with the bleak and sorrowful nature of this record. With it’s trance like repetitive guitars, it’s mesmerising repetitive percussion and the vocal exploits, this record is one that shows a lot of promise. This is a powerful and evocative debut from a band who comes from a part of Europe not often associated with black metal.

Trancelike Void - Destroying Something Beautiful - 47%

Zephyrus, June 28th, 2008

Written for The Metal Observer: http://www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=14496

Tedium. Life's full of it. That's one reason our race invented music, like Metal, to escape from tedium. Music either excites us for entertainment or incites a feeling of aural transcendence. This Belgian duo aims for the latter, but fails to distinguish music from tedium.

Now Black Metal is generally more repetitive than most genres, but not to this point. By this band's moniker, Trancelike Void, we see it purposes to hypnotize the listener with simple riffs played over and over, with the same drum pattern throughout each song, buffered by ambient tracks. Repeating evocative riffs works great, but this band uses mediocre riffs to stretch out over the course of several minutes. This doubles the suffering of a listener left waiting for something else to happen.

I was neither entranced by this music nor did I experience any mental void, given the claustrophobic vocal and guitar production; just uninspired strumming of power chords. The ambient tracks let me catch my breath, but they didn't break the monotony at all. Some would say that this album functions better as whole this way, and I agree. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but this whole isn't that great to begin with.

I write this as an avid fan of Xasthur, so I'm not unfamiliar with bands that strive for similar purposes as this one. I do concede that I don't like Nortt, and in a band photo for Trancelike Void, a member is wearing a Nortt shirt. Fans of that band should perhaps take note. Otherwise, be relieved that you don't have one more new album to check out for this year.