Few bands feel as essential as Vermont’s Body Void right now. This three piece makes music that perfectly soundtracks our current dystopia. It’s music for anyone enraged at the state of the modern world. People furious at the upcoming climate apocalypse. Individuals angry at the treatment of both people of color and queer people. Groups who recognize the evils of people in positions of power abusing that power to actively harm the disenfranchised. Maybe more than any album they’ve made before, Atrocity Machine might be the most pissed off the band has ever been. 

Every song on Atrocity Machine sounds like the sins of humanity laid out in clear view. Vocalist Willow Ryan screams on every track like it’s a sermon for the end of the world. Each song on the album recognizes the systems destroying us are just individual gears in the same engine of destruction. The music illustrates the mundane horrors we face every day. The lyrics on this album makes clear that the people who perpetuate any of these things perpetuate all of these things. And like any sensible person, this band is pissed off about it. These aren’t songs made by people who feel powerless. Body Void write songs to remind people that spite remains an incredible motivator.

Few albums this year both sound and feel as oppressive as Atrocity Machine. The punishing cacophony only enhances the bleak lyrical content. It’s a grinding, industrial brand of noise metal thanks to the addition of new band member Janys-Iren Faughn. Faughn, previously a touring member and who made their debut on the Burn The Homes Of Those Who Seek To Control Our Bodies EP, creates harsh ambient noisescapes that add to the intensity of the band’s sound. Willow Ryan’s guitar and bass playing was heavy on previous releases but here it modulates between stomping out of the speakers on “Flesh Markey” to being pure sheets of metallic noise on “Cop Show.” Their playing here is both hammer hitting and buzzsaw noises. Eddie Holgerson plays his drums with the knowledge that while hitting the beats hard or fast is effective, so is the silence between those beats. That tension between beats only adds to the unease. This is sludge metal in the sense that three musicians feel confident trapping any sound they can to get their point across. 

If you’ve felt hopeless and angry at the state of the world in the last three years, listening to Atrocity Machine is an empowering experience. The six songs remind listeners that systems of oppression are interlinked. Body Void have sounded great in the past but on Atrocity Machine they sound even more ferocious. The end of world may not be preventable, but you don’t have to be quiet about it. And you certainly don’t have to be happy either.

— D. Morris

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Atrocity Machine is available now on Prosthetic Records.  For more information on Body Void, visit their Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram.