(In February Noble Demon released a new album by the Finnish melodic death metal hellions Voidfallen. DGR held fire and allowed the album to boil through his sensorium for a while, as he often does, and he’s now ready to give us his thoughts about it.)
Like many a melodeath band in this day and age, Finland’s Voidfallen are an interesting proposition. This is a genre well-known and well-trodden with an immense body of work to its name and just as many contortions and permutations as someone could even imagine – and then some. There’s been an insane number of groups looking to put their own spin on the catchier and more glamorous side of death metal, taking its penchant for hook-heavy riff work and shred-tastic guitar soloing and continually stacking new blocks atop it or bending it to their will.
When you have regional flavorings adding to the massive subgenrification of a style, you know you’re dealing with an unruly beast, one which at this point is beyond just the territory of a devil we know and well within the realms of a devil we may have been intimate with once or twice, assuming that quiet nod and knowing wink isn’t just suggesting future adventures post-expected drunken blackout.
Noble Demon then have an intriguing idea put forth with Voidfallen‘s second album The Rituals Of Resilience. Beyond the masks and spectacle, Voidfallen are a combination of classic keyboard and guitar warrior melodeath, slamming face-first into an insane tango with the darker side of Omnium Gatherum‘s slightly more progressive flavorings. The Rituals Of Resilience has Voidfallen smashing up against the plexiglass of their chosen genre in a classic act of attempting to do what could best be defined as ‘a hell of a lot’ while still hewing hard into their foundational drawings.
Voidfallen‘s calling card on The Rituals Of Resilience is in service of larger spectacle. The immediate dispensing of pretension by not having a broken out introductory song is appreciated, yet Voidfallen still make it clear they have grander ambitions in mind than another gallop-heavy keyboards-and-guitar rocker style of melodeath album. Be it the masks and half-robed figures that the Voidfallen crew are portraying or the part where the ten songs that make up The Rituals Of Resilience still play out as if they were tightly packed together despite hovering pretty steadily around the three to four and a half minute mark, the group are operating on a larger scale.
In fact, despite there being no broken-out introductory number, part of the meat on the bones of opener “Threads Of Blood” comes from a steady bit of orchestral scene setting. The ominous greys and whirling mist come fading into view early before Voidfallen emerge from the shadows to launch into the almost-required-by-law adrenaline shot that is the opening song. Voidfallen‘s musical sphere is varied enough that while you get the basic understanding of the building blocks the group will be using, you can’t quite offer that “Threads Of Blood” completely lays out the groundwork for this release as a whole.
There’s a clear argument to be made for most of it as Voidfallen blast and dart their way through a healthy block of guitar riff-work and backing symphonic bombast within the bounds of “Threads Of Blood”, but it is one of three to four different approaches that Voidfallen will take over the course of forty-plus minutes. This isn’t one of those where you could approach it like a novel and read the intro and the back few pages and try to have your mind fill in the gaps. You’d land on “The Mourning Shores” and have only the slightest idea of how you got there just going by a basic understanding of the genre.
Voidfallen are a classic band in one sense: They’re heavily lead-guitar driven with the main melodies of any particular song becoming the driving force of the time spent with you. Rhythm segments rotate through a bevy of certified melodeath two-steps and gallops, and in bigger songs like “Tread With Ghosts” and “Hymn For The Fallen” you can even hear them hit the full cycle and reset again. Layered over the top of any particular Voidfallen song is a main guitar melody that pulls from a multitude of influences – heavily folk-metal inspired at times, the occasional black metal chord ripper, and the sort of swaying and cold depression that groups like Insomnium have made their bread with for some time.
More often than not combining this with a backing – but not fully overbearing – keyboard line or symphonic piece creates a sense of scale on The Rituals Of Resilience that gradually becomes much larger in scope than initially expected. Vocalist Lauri Honkola maintains a tight reign over much of it, syncing his vocal barks as much with the drumming as the occasional ride-along with the guitar team, at times achieving that sought-after third instrument that goes beyond basic lyric work and melds fully into the music.
The build up to The Rituals Of Resilience took some time as well, with near-half of this album released ahead of it, with multiple playthroughs and music videos slowly drip-fed to the Noble Demon label’s crowd in order to build familiarity. That’s not to rob songs like “Pyre Of Vengence” – a beneficiary of the much lofted-about guitar lead work – or “Starved Of Martyrs” of any chance at the spotlight, it’s just recognizing that given the rollout that Rituals experienced there is a decent chance many of us may have already crossed paths with Voidfallen‘s melding of the various extreme genres into its own catchy and ferocious melodic soup.
They don’t aim for overwhelmingly heavy but there’s a definite sense that even in the musical expanses that Voidfallen conjure, they can get surgical with particular segments to make sure they grab hold of someone’s subconcious. This is why the three-and-a-half-minute flame lobbing songs that Voidfallen summon up halfway into the album arrive so appreciated – the instant teeth bared and ready to fight style works just as well when you allow the duo of Tommi Kangaskortet and Henri Vuorenmaa to run wild as fast as they can, as it does when they get to rumble alongside Voidfallen‘s rhythm section for the more epic numbers. The combo of “From The Towers Of Ivory” and the titular “Ritual Of Resilience” make for a good later-album haymaker just as you think you’re finally settling in.
Melodeath fans have had a pretty good time over the first third of 2025, especially as it seems that Finland in particular has decided now is the time to plant their banner in the ground for the genre. There’s been a burst of activity overall for the genre as a whole as it seems we’ve cycled around into not only full nostalgia but also groups seeking to make their own stamp in a newer era. The embrace of keyboards and symphonics has been long known and a go-to for many groups, but the new push on higher extremity levels in favor of more bombast has been something that has finally burst to the surface after having simmered for so long just below.
Voidfallen are part of a new class gleefully gallavanting and grabbing their way through the genre as a whole, fusing together multiple potions into their own special brew for The Rituals Of Resilience. The result of a career refined since the group’s initial salvos dating back to 2019, the group’s second full-length is an enjoyable take on what Voidfallen have been slowly building toward. It is a healthy forty-plus minutes of headbanging music backed with just enough symphonic discovery and guitar shred to make the time spent feel worth it. They rumble through cascading valleys and topple high mountains, creating the occasional battle-hymn alongside the equally heavy steel rain.
If your musical journey has you craving more music to windmill to with thunder and lightning as a backing soundtrack, Voidfallen‘s The Rituals Of Resilience will easily fill that – there’s a word for this…. – large space.
https://voidfallen.bandcamp.com/album/the-rituals-of-resilience
https://music.nobledemon.com/rituals
https://www.facebook.com/voidfallenofficial
https://www.instagram.com/voidfallenofficial/