Void Stasis Returns with a Focused, Cosmic Dread

Void Stasis returns with a new dark ambient tale of cosmic wonder and dread. The first foray into the cinematic soundspace was the album, Ruins, an excellent debut into the genre with its electronic mosaics and industrial undertones, certain to surface due to the proclivities of the project’s creators. Viral Incubation sees the group more focused on a singular story idea, the concept of which helps propel the music (and subsequently, the listener) into a cold, frightful future. In this futuristic horror atmosphere, Void Stasis has also received contributions from other artists on the Cryo Chamber label, most notably Atrium Carceri, whose ambient brilliance is always welcome to bring to the transom of the mind’s eye.

Viral Incubation is a story not only told through the music, but also through the included album booklet; the story of a survey team exploring a cave, and their terrifying discoveries. Upon reading the liner notes and album booklet, the listener to this sonic horrorscape will almost immediately see the influences on this album - the movie ALIEN, and the dread architecture inspired by artist H R Giger, and this certainly helps set the timbre and mood in the mind’s eye; a slow, malevolent morphological decay. The music is subdued foreboding, a blanket laced with threads of analog electronic pads and analog drum hits, no singular part standing out to identify itself, but rather every part subtly and gently flowing into the next, with a constant, dread resonance keeping the ebbs and flows of the melodies coursing at their prescribed paces. Inspired distorted drones and amorphous rhythms pulse in much the same way as the slimed and effluvial striations along the corridors of this hellish cave wherein we traverse, these melodies are organic, but they are also manufactured, the copper-tinged electronic taste of wiring stinging the peripheral of the mind’s palate.

The story is macabre and mysterious, and the music is an excellent set piece of grim, cosmic ambience; this follow-up sees the group really showing their skills with cinematic soundscapes as the more focused narrative gives the music more focus, and with the sci fi horror inspirations worn on its sleeve, fans of both this style of music and film will find something to love about this album. One of the most enjoyable albums to release from Cryo Chamber so far this year, you can purchase Viral Incubation from Void Stasis in CD digipak and digital format on the Cryo Chamber Bandcamp page.