Scottish death metal received a fair amount of attention over the last five years, but its post-metal and experimental artists deserve the spotlight, thanks mainly to Ripcord Records, which is the leading patron of the scene. Void of Light signalled their intent with two EPs in 2022 and 2023, but now they’re ready to join Codespeaker and Beneath a Steel Sky as a force you cannot ignore. Asymmetries is a metal album first and post-everything else in the background.
You might think you’ve wandered into the nocturnal mysteries of a Tiamat song when the eerie keyboard oscillations and clean guitars saunter through the first minute of opener, ‘The Passing Hours’. Then, the distortion pedal kicks in, and Ali Lauder unleashes his words like a prophet chained to the beach for a sea monster to devour. The guitars are dense in the mix with a perfect calibration of treble and bass settings, yet the impressive thing here is the seamless way Void of Light switch between visceral rage and calm meditation. Even in the quieter moments, you can’t shake the paranoia. There’s an anxiety at the heart of this music that you can sometimes avoid if you let the chugging riffs empower you, but the Glaswegians know they can sweep you into their ocean. Listen how a Leonard Cohen voice guides you through the sorrows of the clean passages as they prepare you for one last onslaught of thumping sludge metal at the end with blast beats and sixteenth note operations added for extra effect.
Post-metal is the type of music death metal fans can gravitate to if they tire of the clichés of their first love. It’s just as heavy, albeit in an emotional way that’s anchored in the world of grief, loss, and agonising introspection. You look at yourself in the mirror for an album like this, and you swear there’s a two-second delay between your movements and what you can see in the glass. ‘Silver Mask’ thrives on a frenzied stab of palm-muted guitars and a second axe shadowing it higher up the fretboard with the type of phrasing common in the post-punk music of the 1980s. It evolves like a science experiment that threatens to go beyond its expected behaviour in a controlled environment. The tempo hums and throbs in its search for answers. Voices salivate and distort and sometimes feel sorry for themselves.
By contrast, ‘Ends’ seethes from the high-tempo guitars and the power of the vocal screams, like a post-metal version of Paradise Lost. Inevitably, this sounds as good through headphones as it does in writing. Observe how Stephen Wilkinson dictates from the drum stool like a composer participating in his own choir rather than guiding it. The audio production brings all instruments to the fore and keeps the bass in reserve so it can fill in when needed. You wonder if they might leap into a Gojira groove at any point, but the strings are on the wrong end of down-strumming violence more often than machine gun riffing. When Void of Light fall into doom metal despair, they do it like sailors fighting to the end on a sinking ship rather than disconsolate crew that gave up on life years ago. Perhaps the only area where more work will pay off is in the shaky chain-smoking voice that rears its head on many of these songs. Its emotional resonance is not in doubt, but its delivery seems unsure of itself. By contrast, the strangulated gargle at the finale is a remarkable way to surprise the listener under a barrage of blast beats when you assume everything will peter out in a solemn cloud of self-reflection.
Clearly, bassist, Dan Irving, had his way in the writing of ‘Still the Night Skies’. It’s the one time the grizzle of his down-tuned strings is allowed to dominate the mix with respectful drum patterns and blurry guitar effects warning you to turn back. Think of it as a song for metalheads who cannot understand the lure of shoegaze but appreciate the sorrows of post-punk and the internal anguish of Joy Division. You’d forgive the Glaswegians if they honoured their fellow Scots in Mogwai with a quieter post-rock affair for closing effort, ‘Mirrorings’, but they emphasise the intoxicating power of their drop-tuned riffs to hook you in and then leave you bare in the verses. The effect is thrilling when you know the adrenaline will return. Can you hear the contrasting singing voices pulling you to the same place of bereavement? What about the sensitive guitar phrasings that land like raindrops in between the menacing death-doom parts?
Asymmetries is not a formula to be discovered. You don’t need to overanalyse anything here. This music is immersive and can get into your veins with ease. Is that not the secret of post-metal?
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 03/04/2026
Record Label: Ripcord Records
Standout tracks: Ends; Still the Night Skies
Suggested Further Listening: Everest Queen – Murmurations (2022), Codespeaker – Scavenger (2024), Dimscûa – Dust Eater (2025)