The new EP continues in the same direction as the first studio album. The emerging sense of doom immediately captures the listener as the guitars utilize wide and deep slow ambient passages on the opening track ‘Telluric Dismemberment’. Void Rot shrewdly exposes its sinister qualities: the growls depict a dark morose feel with the music steeped in the otherworldliness of death metal. The songwriting imposes visceral qualities that are thick, heavy and resonant. Riffs are noteworthy here for their ambiance and hooks. However, it’s clear that the quartet takes the same approach which they have presented on their first album. Yet there is a whole spectrum of Finnish death doom influences ingrained into the musical structure as well.

Void Rot‘s sonic trademarks are really appealing: the guitars create murky, cavernous atmospheric landscapes brimming with heavy lumbering riffs. Grim somber growls reverberate through the crushing paces of the drums while exploring their own brand of spectral elements which serve as signature sound. Guttural growls slowly plunge the listener into the dark abyss. ‘Telluric Dismemberment’ focuses on the bleakness of the atmosphere, but it also shows the band’s early influences. In the following track ‘Black Embrace’ ,which is a cover song, Void Rot offers a re-envisioning of Finnish death metal band Amorphis. The US quartet aptly captures the murkiness of the death doom metal of the 90s.

In the live track ‘Descending Pillars’ the guitars provide a gigantic tone with the galvanic tides of the drums contrasting with the menacing growls. These moments specifically can be compared to a band like Krypts. The drums alter between fast and slower paces. The music at times morphs into a brooding environment. The remaining two live tracks ‘Liminal Forms’ and ‘Inversion’ prove that Void Rot is among the best death doom metal acts. All through the time length of 29 minutes, the quartet maintains a heavy wall of sound adding ominous themes of dreadfulness.

Void Rot‘s latest EP builds on the musical aspect of ‘Descending pillars’, imbuing a perfect portrait of spectral themes that feels like a consolidated soundtrack, all compacted into several tracks that take various twists by exploring new grounds. The Minnesota quartet delivers a cosmic dread of crushing parade where the music drifts and drips slowly with the spectral rhythm of hypnotic chords, seemingly drawing its sonic context from the cold cavernous hollows of death doom.

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