With members of Massemord, Iperyt and Infernal War in this trio’s ranks I was well aware this one was going to deliver a right Polish battering. What with the title ‘Working Class Misanthropy: Of Rapture And Disgust’ (to give it it’s full moniker) and a production job by M of Mgla and Kriegsmaschine it was an album that I knew was going to be extreme and indignant and indeed extremely indignant with it. The 33 minute hate-work did not disappoint in the slightest and the first play made me sit up and take notice and after several more spins Voidhanger have certainly delivered the goods as promised.
This is essentially an exercise in scathing black thrash and as ‘No Ground To Hold’ slowly builds up after a well-placed sample it has a real meaty feel to its bones. There’s rage and a punk laden barrage when it explodes fully into action and yeller Warcrimer’s vokills are solid and commanding and unleash a neat death grunt amidst the churn of guitars and battering drums. It pretty much compels head-banging combining the formidable Polish assault with an old school Teutonic feel enforcing this with the true vibe of the old school of thrash metal. There are some slower parts between the neck wrecking assaults but they are equally heavy and with the rumbling bass and high cracking snare clashes the doomy laden feel is just as lethal. There’s plenty of working class misanthropy going on here and it’s a universal theme highlighted just outside my window at this moment as all the tube workers are on strike and the station, a stone’s throw away, is completely shut. The chorus of this with an expletive driven salvo of “fucks” are a great soundtrack as traffic builds and everyone looks like it would take just one slight provocation to make them go postal. It’s as subtle as a brick and if it were not so cold I would happily open the window and blare it out to spur them further into the red mist of madness. A couple of numbers such as Dni Szaranczy are sung in their native tongue and sound just as forceful and pissed off with some squealing guitars and more beefy grunts forging this ever onwards, just like the plague of locusts that the track has for its theme.
This has the rage of a band such as Impaled Nazarene and more than a touch of the likes of Aura Noir about its blackthrashingmadness and with ‘Scorpion’ there is a good salvo of D-beat fury about it as the metalpunk dynamics rampage away with a hefty coat of crust about them. Needless to say there’s no hanging around on these eight tracks and the only pause comes in the sample before the last of them. The chilling unmistakable tones of Dyanne Thorne are instantly recognisable and if you did not identify them there’s a clue in the track title as this is a bloody ode to everyone’s favourite She Wolf ‘Ilsa.’ The subject matter is executed with suitable panache evoking the grim bloody swathe of the Fraulein Doctor lyrically and with the machine gun delivery of the battering music and rabid vocal cries of her name. As for the final closing sample, just like the album itself, it is indeed “wundebar.”
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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