The Answer Lies In The Black Void is a new collab between Celestial Season drummer/songwriter Jason Köhnen and Thy Catafalque singer Martina Horváth. Together, they’re spelunking into the vast depths of atmospheric, if slightly funeral doom. The group’s debut album, Forlorn (Burning World Records), explores heavy riffs, despondent melodies, and heartfelt vocals. At times, The Answer Lies In The Black Void recalls vintage Anathema, while others the undercurrent of Shape of Despair is strong, but these references are mere indicators of the path Köhnen and Horváth are on.
Indeed, the nine-song Forlorn is bleak, somewhat mysterious, but well appointed. The tenets of doom, funeral doom, the avant-garde, and black metal are finely spun together, expressed through Horváth’s angelic vocals and Köhnen’s penchant for inverting killer, if leaden riffs against a backdrop of subtle keyboards and well-placed percussion. Tracks like “For Nevermore,” “Become Undone,” and “Barren” tower inward, introspectively deft yet thought-provoking enough to award the listener new journeys into the ever-dark hole that sits at the root of our collective souls. So, it’s with eager anticipation that Decibel and Burning World Records have teamed up to premiere the video for opening track, “Mina.”
Say the group: “The Answer Lies In The Black Void is a collaboration between Martina Horváth and Jason Köhnen. Horváth (also singer for the avant-garde metal project Thy Catafalque) and Köhnen (Celestial Season, ex-The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble) predominantly work together in their outwardly music project MANSUR together with Dmitry El Demerdashi (ex-PHURPA) releasing their music on Denovali Records. Horváth and Köhnen decided to join forces through their passion for all things doom, presenting their personal take on the doom genre in all its beautiful darkness and from all possible angles.”
Fall in dreamy slow motion into the deadly and bleak (but lilting) sounds of The Answer Lies In The Black Void…
** The Answer Lies In The Black Void’s debut album, Forlorn, is out now on Burning World Records. The CD and digital can be found at the bottom of the binary abyss on Bandcamp (HERE). Rhapsody is lovelorn…
