ALBUM REVIEW: Forming The Void, "Rift"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 17/08/2018

Label: Kozmik Artifactz

Forming The Void channel the best of Monster Magnet through a heavy psychedelic doom filter, alternating between massive riffs and passages of cosmic grandeur

“Rift” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Extinction Event

2). On We Sail

3). Arcane Mystic

4). Transient

5). Arrival

6). Ark Debris

7). Shrine

The Review:

It’s hard not to get excited by an album cover that depicts a woolly mammoth jumping over a mountain in space. Fortunately the contents of Forming The Void’snew LP “Rift” deliver on these weighty cosmic expectations.

The Louisiana quartet waste no time getting down to business with the crushing groove of “Extinction Event’. The track channels the best of Monster Magnet through a heavy psychedelic doom filter, alternating between massive riffs and passages of cosmic grandeur.  This is a trick Forming The Void hone to perfection over the course of “Rift”. The middle section of the album finds the band recreating the thunderous majesty of self-titled LP era Torche, particularly the monstrous opening to “Arrival” and the smouldering sky-kissing solo that rounds off “Transient”.

“Ark Debris” and “Shrine” provide a powerful end to the album with Forming The Void at their slowest and most hypnotic. The former is a particularly absorbing slow-motion voyage into the beyond with huge, lush layers of sound giving way to bursts of triumphant doom. These tracks particularly highlight the importance the production plays in the success of this record. Chris Munson’s recording has captured the interstellar scale of these compositions with the smoothness of a classic rock or prog album but with more than enough dirt that no-one forgets this is a doom album at heart. 

“Rift” is a strong collection from Forming The Void. These massive tracks sound like they could take the band to a wider audience while maintaining enough low end crunch to satisfy underground riff aficionados.

“Rift” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook