Floodlit Recordings – 29th August 2025
Christopher Nosnibor
Having discovered Swans in my teens – it was the late 80s and a friend introduced me to their most recent album, Children of God, which swiftly led me, via weekends spent at record fairs, to Cop, whenever I’m forewarned that a new release is ‘heavy’, I invariably find myself thinking ‘really? How heavy? Bring it on!’
I read – am forewarned – that Trudger’s ‘new album Void Quest… released on August 29th through Floodlit Recordings, a new label venture from guitarist of Pijn and Leeched… [is]
absolutely savage’. I saw Pijn live a few years ago and they slayed, so I consider this a positive in advance. And there’s no question that Void Quest is something of a monster. Arriving a full eleven years on from their debut, it’s as if they’ve distilled all the rage and festering fury of a decade into the nine songs on offer here.
The first track, ‘Merciless Sabre’ is fast and furious, but arrives with a surplus of fast licks and an element of black metal fretwankery that, in my ears, diminishes its weight despite the rampant, rabid ravings of the vocals, the tempestuous blast of the instruments combined to create a thunderous wall of noise.
Things settle to a more organised shape with ‘Occupied Frequency’, where math and metal merge. It seems as if they flung everything into the blender to grab the attention at the start and possibly overdid it, as things aren’t quite as wildly ostentatious thereafter. Sure, the guitar work is fast and furious, and it’s still showy and perhaps a bit over-the-top, but they layer down some magnificent textures and judicious detail amidst the relentless sonic assault, the eardrum-bursting blast.
‘God Rest’ is slower, heavier, and utterly devastating in its driving density. ‘Battle Hardened’ is simply out-and-out brutal, a song that slays all comers. Think you’re hard? Wait for this. This is shit that will slice your head off and ruin your internal organs.
Void Quest is heavy, but what makes it really heavy is its relentlessness. Thirty-five minutes or so of blasting ferocious noise, it leaves you feeling like you’ve just been given a good kicking. I wouldn’t recommend taking a kicking, but I would recommend this.
AA
Aural Aggravation 