Album Review: Void Of Vision - 'Children Of Chrome'

Chances are that if you live in Melbourne, attend local metalcore shows and don’t live under a massive rock, you’ve at least heard the name Void Of Vision. This five-piece recently signed a deal with Unified after a mere three years of electrifying crowds with their brand of down tuned metalcore, of which borrows from several different influences, and their distinctive stage uniforms that gave the band their own unique look. With nu-metal seeping into metalcore more and more frequently these days, is it safe to say Void Of Vision are heading in a similar direction on their debut album ‘Children Of Chrome’?

Well, the first single ‘//’ certainly makes no bones about it, with its bouncy intro and first verse. The guest appearance made by Drew York of Stray From The Path definitely contributes to it too, and I must say, his spot fits the song really well. Next up is ‘Blacklist’, and it’s more in line with what you’d expect from the band that brought us all the ‘Broken Bones’ EP not too long ago. The addition of a clean vocal-lead chorus is a nice touch and it’s good to hear frontman Jack Bergin utilising his cleans. Further contributing to the overall 1990's vibe is the dial-up connection sample that brings the track to an end before leading into ‘Ctrl Freak’. The nu-metal elements definitely start to come back in with this song, and it again utilises clean vocals. If anything I think this helps it blend a little too easily with the previous song due to some similarity in song structure (but I’ll get to that shortly).

One small observation I'd like to make is that a lot of these songs are clocking in well under three minutes. These guys definitely know how to get to the point! Also, lyrically, I can definitely see the band is treading new ground. ‘//’ is very obviously a political statement, and York's verse is pretty critical of Australia’s immigration policies with lines such as “"You ignore the voice and take away discretion, but blink for a second, and you've got kids locked in detention centres" definitely hit their mark.

However, lyrics and to-the-point song lengths aside, once you hit the back half of this album the cracks start to show. It’s not that this is a bad album/collection of songs - it's a solid record, for sure - but so much of it blends together far too easily. VOV often relies on a very similar set of riffs, vocal patterns, and rhythms, amongst other things, all giving off a strong sense of sameness and repetition. This is something that plagued ‘Broken Bones’ as well. I also think that ‘Sunrise’ is a little weirdly placed, considering the band released it as a single a fair while ago.

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I’ve always found Void Of Vision to be a stellar live act and a band that I’m definitely a big fan of. But ‘Children Of Chrome’ really is a tricky one for me. Being a big fan of Void Of Vision, I wanted to absolutely love this album but I'm struggling to fully gel with it. Perhaps it is just a matter of seeing these songs live that will change my mind and win me over to this debut record. But for now, though, I am only left wanting.