Whatever there is in the waters of Ravenna, Northern Italy - if we had it everywhere, the world would be a better place! Proof? Metaphora!
Ravenna might turn out to be this year’s capital for everything metal. January saw the release of Nero DiMarte’s angry post-metal record, February witnessed the release of Postvorta’s opus magnum Porrima and in March, Void of Sleep show their third full-length Metaphora to the world. Interesting is that members of Nero DiMarte and Postvorta also play in Void of Sleep and in some ways there can be parallels in the sound.
Void of Sleep perform a kind of very proggy post-metal or sludge with twisting time signatures here and there with short breaks and “stop and go”-moments which really takes you on a journey. The most impressive here is certainly the rhythm section because without a tight performance by Andrea (bass, Nero DiMarte) and Allo (drums) this whole thing would fall apart. Nevertheless, that shall not imply that the guitar work by Gale and Burdo (also responsible for vocals) is not worth mentioning, because very often they show an amazing feeling for timing and interweave their sometimes doomy, sometimes sludgey riffs with a soothing solo or some acoustic passages to purvey the songs room to breathe. The only thing that might not be to everybody’s taste might be the vocals as they often delve into the realm of prog-metal (not the cheesy end, but the clean style).
When listening to Void of Sleep you can fall into songs that transport you either to the highest satellites or the deepest ravines, which shows how open the musical horizon is. The author of these lines saw a group of people trying to run up some steep Appenine hill slipping on the rocky parts and yet determined to reach the top as a group not as individuals, helping each other out if one of them stumbled and fell. However, at the supposed “top” of the hill they have to realize that they are not even close to the summit but only mastered a little peak behind which a whole “universe” of mountains of even greater heights hid. Determined to keep their bond and friendship intact, they start ascending the next one.
One might wonder about the structure of the mountains close to Ravenna, the momentary capital for thinking man’s metal.
