Hailing from Poland, OVER THE VOIDS is a debut solo project from The Fall, who also plays in the band OWLS WOODS GRAVES. The album contains nine tracks. "The Pillar" is a short one-and-a-half minute, mood-setting instrumental. It moves with grace, and charm, from clean guitar notes, and smooth, melancholy vocals. "One Commandment" goes fuller into that Black Metal sound. The instruments create a wall of sound, while the vocals are vile shrieks. The pacing changes around the half-way mark, but it's back to the wall of sound before too long.

"In the Great War of Nothing" is unfortunately more of the same. Black Metal can generally go one of two main directions. First, stick to the original formula that is so overdone today it is not even funny. Second, branch out on your own to really forge a new path, because the genre boundaries are limitless...perhaps more so than any other genre of music. There is some small level of branching here, but it stays pretty traditional overall. "Witchfuck" is slower at first, then goes faster and more chaotic. That slow, heavy riff just after the half-way mark is downright bossy, and I like the effect it gives to the song. But, it just sounds out of place with the rest of the song.

"Stone Vault Astronomers" is close to seven minutes in length, opening with a chaotic sound and guttural vocals. The guitar work does establish a particular sound...one could loosely call it melody. Eerie spoken words come into play as well. "Prodigal King" opens with a commanding and powerful riff, before that wall of sound comes into play. This song has a more linear pattern, with less of that chaotic sound of some of the previous tracks. Just before the half-way mark, the riff changes, with a bit of a groove. Here is an example of forging their own path a little bit.

"A Tribe with no Mythology" is a short, two-minute track. The riff leans a bit here and there but for the most part, stays within the boundaries of the genre. "Corridors Inside a Glacier" opens with a completely different sound. It's slow, and breathes, albeit a bit on the melancholy side. But, it falls in line pretty quickly thereafter, but still retains some of the edge of the opening melody a bit. Overall this song was a bit of a surprise, not going down the same path as previous songs. "Thin Ice" closes the album; a short two-and-a-half-minute song, much like the opening song, with despondent sounds coming from clean guitar notes.

Overall, as I mentioned above, the songwriter just failed to take too many chances here and really go after a new sound. Instead, he relied on tried and true methods that will please purists in the genre, but don't do a lot for me, who is always looking for something fresh, and different. It was a decent first effort, but just mediocre for me.