Selling progressive metal, or even more specifically jazz fusion inflected death metal to our readership who haven’t made the leap into this territory already may be a hard task. VoidCeremony are not Steve Vai in pork pie hats. No knowledge of music theory, membership to Billy Cobham fanclub, or time spent on guitar forums is necessary to enjoy ‘Abditum’, a top album of 2025. Like Blood Incantation and Faceless Burial, acts that I’m specifically mentioning as gateway groups into contemporary metal for our particular record store, VoidCeremony’s progressive tendencies serve the sound narrative, not the instrumentalists ego. I look forward to every bamboozling, disorientating, thrilling twist and turn. Compared to their previous album ‘Threads of Unknowing’ (2023) the fretless bass boiOioing sits a little lower in the mix on ‘Abditum’, allowing space for a guitar interplay that uniquely weaves between shrill discordance and soaring majestically. Sorry to be personally sentimental but this album has got me reminiscing about the Metal and Jazz mix CDs my friend Daryl gave me at uni 20 years ago, and how the xtremity of Gorguts and Ornette Coleman actually acted as my best entry points for two of the truest genres. — Nic Abditum by VoidCeremony
