The return of the king, no not that one from Tolkein's Lord of the Rings but Void King the prog metal/doom/stoner rock quartet hailing from from Indianapolis, Indiana. The band have just released their fourth full length studio album "The Hidden Hymnal: Chapter II" (Argonauta Records), the follow up to their extremely well received 2023 release "The Hidden Hymnal". Void King, Derek Felix (drums/percussion); Chris Carroll (bass); Jason Kindred (vocals) and Tommy Miller (guitar) had already built themselves a reputation for releasing music of quality and depth, thanks to albums like "There Is Nothing" and "Barren Dominion", but the release of "The Hidden Hymnal" proved to be a game changer that saw a whole host of new fans flocking to the bands flag. Of course releasing something as powerful and well received as "The Hidden Hymnal" was always going to raise expectations for the bands next project, could their next album match the intensity and majesty of their last album or would it be fated to forever dwell in its shadow? Well in our humble opinion "Chapter II" is every bit as majestic and intense as its predecessor if not more so.
Starting an album with a strong opening number will almost always guarantee that any casual listeners will still be listening when the second song rolls along and hopefully beyond that and Void King open "Chapter II" with an absolute belter in the shape of "The Birth Of All Things". The songs starts fairly lightweight with a lone guitar motif but then in comes the bass and drums and things take on a much weightier feel, that added weightiness giving Kindred the perfect platform to unleash his strong deep and rich vocals, how good are those vocals? Well let us just say that if this man decided to sing a McDonalds menu Desert Psychlist would still listen. The rest of the band are no shrinking violets here either, Felix's drumming is at times Bonham-esque but he also has that swing thing going on too, bassist Carroll lays it down low deep and gnarly where it is needed and big and bouncy where it is not and Miller fills in any spaces left with crunching chord work, shimmering licks and tasteful searing lead. Next up is "A Union of Expired Souls" a song with a strong progressive metal meets traditional/epic doom feel that is further enhanced by a vocal that sits very much in that latter territory, things become even more doomic as the song progresses with the songs groove taking on a more sedate stoner-doom dynamic and sees Kindred trading off his clean gothic tinted tones with those of a more harsher and growlier nature. The following "Prologue", is an instrumental piece anchored to earth by Carroll's dark thrumming bass and Felix's varied, but always solid and tight, drumming over which Miller layers a virtual smorgasbord of guitar colourings and textures. "Attrition" sounds like it should be heavy and for the most part it is, except for an intriguing middle section where things get interestingly jazzy, in a fusion kind of way, while "Convalescence" sways between crunching heaviness and progressive bluesiness, both songs featuring outstanding contributions from all involved both instrumentally and vocally. Second to last number "Expiration" begins life sludgy and metallic and features vocals that are a mix of harsh and clean, although interrupted by a passage of lysergic laced progressiveness this song may not only be this albums heaviest track but also it is its gnarliest. Finally we get the wave goodbye that is "Epilogue", it may not be the barnburner some might have been expecting to close such a powerful album but it does have its own off-kilter charm, albeit a charm curtailed to just over the one minute mark.
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