Voidward
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Voidward

Durham, North Carolina, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | SELF

Durham, North Carolina, United States | SELF
Established on Jan, 2014
Band Metal Rock

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"The Sleeping Shaman Review"

Voidward is a solo project by Greg Sheriff from Durham, U.S.A.

On ‘Knives’, Greg takes us on a dark journey indeed. We travel to a land of brooding riffs that convey to me a deep emotion. At times melancholic, at other times soul crushingly heavy and drenched in effects that give the whole a Postcore meets Blackmetal vibe, Voidward is an aptly named project and each of the three tracks on this EP is a knife into your heart.

The opener ‘The Plowman’ starts off with an almost Joy Division like lonely guitar. Soon a riff comes in, not only in the music, no! It carves a way directly into your heart. To me it is reminiscent of Warning or Pallbearer. Then a swirling black fog surrounds me as reverberated vocals claw at my face. Vocals that would not be out of place on any black metal album, yet with a rare sincerity. Greg is laying bare his soul here, no doubt about that. A truly mesmerising track that slowly tightens its claws around you, like a siren dragging an ecstatic victim to the ocean floor. I don’t want this to end, even though it’s suffocating me.

Just as I am about to collapse from the weight of the song the next track, ‘There Are Stars In All Wolves Eyes’, opens with a much more rock oriented riff, yet as it goes along I am strangely reminded of mid era Bathory. The vocals are even more reverberated, almost to the point where you can’t recognise them as a voice. The Bathory association becomes stronger around the five minute mark when an epic solo flows over the riffing, and leads us to a psychedelic interlude. Yet this is the deceiving bit, for shortly after, things take on a very old school metal approach! Here it sounds like a heavy metal version of Bathory with even some twin leads thrown in for good measure. This bit however is not quite to my taste and I begin to yearn back to the epic greatness of the opening track. The song ends with the same Bathory vibe, only then with added psych weirdness.

My yearning gets answered with ‘To Scatter One’s Own’. A heavy riff beats me into submission. After I have fallen to my knees in agony, a soothing cloak of psychedelia is laid over my shoulder, the screams and echoing whispers of Greg strangely comforting me. He knows the pain I feel. It is his pain and he lovingly shares it with all who want to hear. Back comes the trudgeon of a riff from the beginning, beating down on my mind over and over and over. The beating ends rather abruptly and a final ambient soundscape drains what is left of me.

This was an immensely bleak journey into the soul of a musician, where the landscape was all jagged mountain peaks, unending rain and a thousand different shades of black. Yet it is a journey I am willing to take again, many times and for years to come. A journey onward to oblivion: Voidward.
- The Sleeping Shaman


"Sludgelord Review"

Voidward is a solo metal project from Durham, NC, USA

Voidward is the work of one highly talented individual - Greg Sheriff - who plays everything on the awesome Voidward debut EP - Knives.

His bio should tell you all you need to know and what to expect on Knives EP.

"Voidward is Greg Sheriff. Taking inspiration from the many consistently great North Carolina bands like US Christmas, Horseback and Make, Greg is looking to further expand and blur the lines of what metal is and can be - while still retaining and revelling in its core elements. Voidward is a completely DIY project in all aspects from writing to playing and recording.

To paraphrase Steinbeck, 'Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man...And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.

This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for it is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system.' Other friends and musicians will fill out the live portion, with their influences making Voidward grow and evolve continuously from release to release."

Well since Greg has listed MAKE as one his influences I had to check him out. MAKE are one of my fave Sludge/Post-Metal bands of recent years. All I can say is Knives is fucking epic. It's a seamless mix of Rock, Sludge, Black Metal and Post-Metal that had me coming back for more.

Knives is a 3 song and 28 minute blast of superb extreme metal riffs. It's a deeply emotional ride into the darkness of the human spirit. Greg has brilliantly captured the dark moments that Sludge, Black Metal and Post-Metal are known for.

Greg's sound is highly addictive and one that will last long in the memory. Check out the amazing opening track - The Plowman - which shows you what Voidward is all about. Sprawling dark psych Sludge/Post-Metal riffs mixed with a dangerous Black Metal vibe lurking in the shadows. A great introduction for this EP to start with.

2nd track - There Are Stars In All Wolves' Eyes - adds a more rock orientated sound before adding cold as steel Black Metal vocals that will speak volumes to long time Bathory fans. This is what Ghost BC should of sounded like. Dark, Brutal and filled with epic riffs to rock out to.

3rd Track - To Scatter One's Own - is the final piece in this weird and wonderful psych based jigsaw puzzle that is Knives. Greg returns to his heavier metal roots that he laid down on The Plowman but adding a harsher Psych Rock edge with blistering Ambient based noises and vocals to scare the hell out of you.

Knives is fucking superb. Greg has worked wonders here. His style of music is one I want to hear more of. Knives is awesome.

You can download this for free from BandCamp now. If you want something different to check out then I can't recommend this highly enough.

Excellent and Highly Recommended. - Sludgelord


Discography

Voidward EP
(track listing)
1. The Plowman
2. There Are Stars in All Wolves' Eyes
3. To Scatter One's Own

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Bio

Voidward is Greg Sheriff. Taking inspiration from the many consistently great North Carolina bands like US Christmas, Horseback and Make, Greg is looking to further expand and blur the lines of what metal is and can be - while still retaining and reveling in its core elements. To paraphrase Steinbeck, 'Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man...And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for it is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system.' Other friends and musicians will fill out the live portion, with their influences making Voidward grow and evolve continuously from release to release.

Band Members