Prepare yourself for an album that will crush everything beneath its feet, an album that will devour all light, and an overall sick-sounding record of crushing dissonant and distorted Black Metal! VOIDTHRONE is a USA (Seattle, Washington) based band, formed in 2016 and active ever since. The band have released their debut album immediately after their formation, and the finished product, "Spiritual War Tactics", is a bone-crushing and ear pleasing album of 4 malicious and dark tracks for fans of incredibly raw, yet somehow avant-garde inspired Black Metal.

"Mortification Of My Legacy" (the opener) starts off with inaudible distortion, silence, which is followed by some brutal, dark, incredibly haunting vocals. The vocals are indeed raw, but the overall atmosphere reminds me a lot of some of the pioneers of the genre like BLUT AUS NORD, DEATHSPELL OMEGA and DODECAHEDRON. Each track is pretty lengthy, so prepare for a tough album, and just like the other long ones, this one clocks in around 9:15 minutes.

Whilst "Nullum Emperium", the second track was playing, I took a moment to appreciate the beautiful, yet incredibly creepy album artwork. The track itself is a bit more experimental, the sound is slower, sometimes it ventures into avant-garde parts, and sometimes it simply remains fucking brutal and raw, without any hesitation. Just like the previous track, this one is rather long and clocks in at around 9:20. However, this track contains much more aggressive vocals - more growling, less screaming - but both vocal approaches are highlighted on the track.

The title track, "Spiritual War Tactics", is just 2 seconds longer than the previous one, and clocks in at around 9:22. This one is my absolute favorite, and there are several reasons as to why. First, it starts where the second one left off, second, the atmosphere is incredible, it's so dark, creepy, avant-garde, and even ambient influenced from time to time; so experimental, so doom and really freaking brutal. I must say that I never knew this band before, and it will now be one of my new favorites amongst this genre - and you should consider giving them a listen, too.

Finally, "Hypnotic Enslavement", got into my speakers, and even if this is the shortest song on the album (5:44 minutes), it is definitely not one that you should skip; you shouldn't skip any of these, if you really like this genre. The final track slowly but surely picks up the overall atmosphere of this haunting record. It's a bit slow at times (though sometimes it speeds up), the atmosphere is avant-garde influenced, but sometimes it's also raw as hell, and it literally sounds like a band from 2 decades ago.

Seriously, if you like really evil Black Metal done right with various modern influences, VOIDTHRONE is a must!