“Into The Void” is the second album from
power metal juggernauts Veonity. While the band comes from Sweden, their music
gives off strong vibes of German power metal, as the record is filled with Iron
Savior tendencies (and Piet Sielck even makes a guest appearance on vocals!).
This means that although “Into The Void” has a lot of melody, it also delivers
plenty of crunchy, powerful riffs. The guitars are always at the forefront of
the music, and even when they’re doing something simple like straightforward
alternate picking or letting power chords ring in a chorus, they are effective.
There are a lot of bands that successfully
manage to emulate Iron Savior’s style, but where most of them fall apart is in
the songwriting department. This isn’t a particularly novel style of music.
Though the tracks are speedy, they aren’t flashy, nor do they feature many
unique ideas. For this reason, Veonity stands above the rest of the pack
because “Into The Void” is filled with anthems. The opening track, “When
Humanity Is Gone” is one of the stronger cuts, especially because it features
an instantly catchy “whoa-oh” section. Other songs like “Solar Storm”, and
“Heart On Fire” are similarly memorable because of great vocal melodies.
“Awake” is the track featuring Piet, and the tradeoff of vocals between him and
Veonity’s singer, Anders Sköld is quite effective. Sköld definitely sticks to a
higher range and isn’t quite as gruff, but nonetheless resembles Piet more
closely than singers like Michael Kiske or Tobias Sammet.
To Veonity’s credit, they are much more
than just an Iron Savior clone. When they are not delivering maximum riffage,
the band is able to use a lot of Helloween-esque melodies (the title track having one of the best examples). The band is also
willing to inject a moderate amount of keyboards into their songs, which are
typically used to build atmosphere, but occasionally take the spotlight. Another
nice element of the band’s music is that they don’t waste a lot of time with
ballads or slow tracks. “Insanity” is the sole example, and it’s only 2
minutes, but serves as more of an interlude than a full track. The result is
that “Into The Void” is a consistently hard-hitting record, with enough of a
unique spin on an Iron Savior meets Helloween sound to be worth revisiting
often.
Highlights
"When Humanity Is Gone"
"Awake"
"Solar Storm"
Final Rating
4.4/5 or 88%.
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