Tasting Notes Reviews

To the uninitiated (of which I was one), Void Sinker specialise in the kind of drone-infused doom that makes the shifting of tectonic plates look positively supersonic. So, it’s quite fitting that their latest release ‘Depth’ takes inspiration from the deepest, darkest recesses of the ocean.

The brainchild of Guglielmo Allegro, Void Sinker is a solo project from Southern Italy…and an extremely prolific one at that, with this being the ninth release since the project’s inception in 2023. If 83 minutes of slowly and purposefully sinking towards your own inevitable demise sounds like your idea of a good time, then jump aboard, the water’s just right!

Taking the monolithic drone of Sunn 0))) and the doom riffage of Bongripper, Void Sinker demand patience from their listeners….but, if you commit to this record then there’s definitely enough of a payoff to make it worth your while. With such a meandering, formless style, you get the feeling that this is music written specifically for the artist himself, it feels like a process that is deeply cathartic and therapeutic, a creation of music that was never designed to be heard by any other ears.

As you would expect, the guitars are detuned down so far that the strings must be like playing a washing line, meanwhile the bass rumbles through your nether-regions leaving almost no trace of fertility. The four desperately dense tracks (‘Depth’, ‘Dragged’, ‘Drowned’ and ‘Dredged’)all share the same dismal drudgery (…okay, I’ll stop with the alliteration now) that you would expect, with ‘Drowned’ being the shortest (at around 17minutes) and most riff-heavy (within reason) of the four.

Now, we do need to address the circling fin here…tracked drums can be a notoriously tricky thing to get right, especially on arrangements this sparse, and unfortunately, the reliance on programmed drums is quite noticeable here. This is a bit of a shame to be honest, especially as Guglielmo is a drummer in a number of other bands and would presumably have been more than capable of pounding his way through these songs. However, I was willing to overlook this and enjoy the ritualistic, mesmeric effects that 80minutes of repetitive doom can have on a person’s brain….definitely one that’s worth dipping your toes in….just watch out for the piranhas!

Best Paired With–A large glass of squid ink and a diving bell.

Review by Bryn

Out now (Independent)