Voidcraeft - Faceless Epoch [ep] (2014), Experimental Black Metal Options

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(IMG:http://metalarea.org/images/audiocovers/2014_Jun/acov_tid226084_thumb.jpg)

*Artist: Voidcraeft

*Album: Faceless Epoch [ep]

*Year: 2014
*Genre: Experimental Black Metal
*Country: Germany (IMG:http://metalarea.org/forum/style_images/flags/Germany.png)
*Format: mp3@VBR273kbps
*Size: 43MB

Tracklist:
1. Non-Man (7:10)
2. Rich in Adversity (7:03)
3. Contemplate Your Nullity (7:23)
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Total playing time: 21:36

Extended info

Description from http://voidcraeft.svart.nu/:

Voidcraeft is my latest one-man musical endeavour.
Instrumentally and vocally it is somewhat atypical black metal, flirting with blackened death metal.
The lyrical themes deal with emptiness, alienation, suffering, violence and the human condition in a rather abstract way.

In my early days I was primarily influenced by raw black metal like Darkthrone (primarily Under a Funeral Moon and perhaps Transilvanian Hunger, they haven't made anything resembling black metal in close to a decade now, though) and Katharsis (of Norma Evangelium Diaboli fame).
In the past ten years the two artists I consumed the most and returned to over and over again are avant-garde black metal legends Deathspell Omega and Australian experimental (blackened) death metal pioneers Portal.
Other bands worth mentioning are Nightbringer, Black Witchery, Diocletian and Antediluvian.

I have been accused of trying to gain publicity by dropping some big names but mind you, I never claimed that my music would appeal to people who are fond of some of the aforementioned artists.
In fact, I feel largely unable to imitate the style of the artists I admire the most (i.e. Deathspell Omega and Portal).
I just think it helps with putting the music into context and gives you some insight into what motivated and inspired an artist in their creative process.

Ideologically and lyrically I would like to distance myself from themes that embrace theism, satanism or other supernatural beliefs in an affirmative way.
As a firm atheist, I disapprove of such content and I will not make my music a vessel for anything like it, despite their prevalence and popularity within the black metal scene.

Instrumentally speaking, I took a strange turn.
This was the first time I actually made an entire release using a microtonal tuning for both the guitars and the bass.
I altered the original tuning of A1 D2 G2 C3 F3 A#3 (guitar)/A1 D2 G2 C3 (bass) such that every second string, starting with the lowest one, is tuned down 50 cents.
Effectively, this results in a 24 tone scale instead of the regular 12 tone one widely used in western music (including black metal).
It enables you to create more dissonant riffs and it just sounds unusual in general.
However, many argue it sounds "funny" or even "out of tune", even when it sounds just as intended.

I finished the last of my eight Emil Cioran books while working on this release.
There is still lots of unused material so I will likley get back to it in future, should I ever make more music.
Overall this concludes my Cioran phase for now, though.
I also realised that I thrive on his aphorisms whereas I have a harder time making use of his essays.
Actually I have come to believe that aphorisms resemble the way I make music: short, disconnected fragments (riffs) that are merged into a greater body (i.e. a track).

I returned to the traditional track length of approximately seven minutes, in the end it is simply more convenient.
Lyrically I drew from three different books by Emil Cioran: The Temptation to Exist, Tears and Saints, The Trouble With Being Born.
After finishing a novel about life in a Soviet concentration camp I have sinced moved on to an English translation of a collection of sayings of early Christian ascetics living in the deserts of what is now Egypt.
It remains to be seen if it will be of any use.

The title of this release, as was the case with Verbal Carrion, is a reference to a quote by Emil Cioran: "The solitary artist writes for himself, or for a faceless public [...] in a faceless epoch".
I believe he was writing about the changes in lifestyle and communication mankind has undergone.
Historically artists were generally supported and consumed by a small circle of people they personally knew.
Things have changed a lot since then and the content of artists is increasingly being consumed by people the artist will never meet in person.
To me, the internet has become another major stepping stone in Cioran's "faceless epoch".

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