Album Review: Hope Drone – Void Lustre (Moment of Collapse/Sludgelord Records)

Not from dark Norway, as you might expect from this kind of music, but from sunny Australia , the quartet Hope Drone will release their third album Void Lustre on August 30th 2019.

In 2012 the band gave their first sign of life with the digital single “From Mimas To Phoebe”. The following year, the self-titled debut was followed by their second album “Cloak Of Ash” in 2015. With this album, the band finally managed to establish themselves at the top of the league of modern post-black metal bands.

For their third album “Void Lustre”, the quartet took a little more time. The five songs consistently continue the band‘s path.

A methodical approach, Hope Drone build dread but not in a fuzzy feedback kind of way but rather with hopeless and darkness covered melodies. Haunting and nightmarish, each singular track drops into unfathomable depths were no sound or sight exists. Then unexpectedly a bright, blinding beacon of brutality and heaviness will burst forth delivering intensity that shocks.

Shocks because of its sudden arrival but once over that initial moment, the twisting and turning through chasms of bleak heaviness really begins to shine. It’s very ‘post’ but not so much as to put off detractors of the style. What it is, is music for a dark and rainy day. When your mood matches the grey sky outside and you want nothing more then to just be alone. This is the soundtrack to that day.

4 tracks that go over 12 minutes and 1 that goes over 7, it’s that one (Forged By the Tide) that really pushes hard – refusing to offer any break from an unrelenting black metal assault.

Another bright star coming of Australia that shows it’s not just rock and roll the country produces. Wonderful.

Hope Drone – Void Lustre Full Track Listing:

1. Being into Nothingness
2. Forged By the Tide
3. In Floods/Depths
4. This Body Will Be Ash
5. In Shifting Lights

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Moment of Collapse | Sludgelord Records