Voice Of Dissent is based in Los Angeles. Founding member Rodney McGlothlin (Vocalist, Bassist) began the project in 2010. Rodney decided to devote his time to his own vision, leaving his former band and recording “Subverses” on his own before looking for the perfect band members to fill the open positions. All the members of VOD are touring pros that have played with the best names in metal including Anthrax, Testament, Slayer, Death Angel, and Overkill to name a few. They bring the old school metal show intensity to the live shows.
Their debut album “Subverses” is being released through Distracked Media. The title “Subverses” refers to a hybrid of subversive information released in verse form. VOD will be releasing a few live tracks, cover songs, and collaborations exclusively through their website and their mailing list over the course of the coming months.
The technicality in the combination of classic metal and thrash these dudes deliver, is displayed in such brutal, forceful speed and addictive manner, that they could easily slip into the most extreme genre of progressive/technical metal. Musically, this could quite possibly be Manowar meets Necrophagist. It’s an assault on the senses, with some of the most catchy riffs possible, within the fine chaotic nature of their songs.
Thrashy, Classic Metal or Melodic Death Metal, its so hard to pin this band’s sound down. “Subverses” sees VOD play a mayhem insanity sound, mixed in with the technical heaviness of expanding rhythmic motions. A kick in the ass album, to say the least.
Of course, we do still have notable thrash and metal artists, who manage to kick ass, like The Haunted and Nightrage, but for the most part, the creative spark that produced some of the most advanced and creative thrash metal bands around has all but died.
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Rodney McGlothlin and VOD on their debut release, have injected a fresh dose of creativity and daring into a genre that seemed ready to expire. Pushing the boundaries of their style from the opening tracks “Defiance” and “Hellbent(Left Hand Path),” you get the impression that the band are in shattering form.
The aggressive tempos and spine-tingling guitar work are sprawled all across the album with fervent ferocity, but the band as a whole up the ante and push their musicianship to dizzying heights. The intricacies of the guitars and the rhythmic gymnastics pulled off by the drummer and Rodney McGlothlin’s machine-gun basslines, help to make this one of the most refreshing metal releases I’ve heard in a long time. Checkout “D-Vour” and “Bloodletting,” to hear exactly what I mean.
But more than the superb musicianship, what impresses me most about VOD is the song writing ability. When broken down to its simplest parts, Rodney McGlothlin writes fairly simple songs (intro, verse, chorus, verse, solo break, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro- obviously not always in the same order). The songs however, are structured in a way that’s very approachable, allowing the band to focus on writing great metal riffs and lyrics, while keeping to a minimum the mind-numbing and scattered, song structures of many extreme metal groups.
The vocals deserve special mentioning. To be sure, there’s plenty of growling and screaming, but many verses and choruses on this album are absolutely epic rock, in the style of early Ozzy Osbourne. It’s not uncommon for a song to build to a phenomenal climax aided by well-executed singing that pushes the intensity to the next level.
The production also does exactly what is needed to unleash the fury of this album. If you’re a hard rock or metal fan, you would be doing yourself a favor by checking out “Subverses,” by Voice Of Dissent.
It will not disappoint.
“Subverses” by VOD, the CD back-cover
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One Comment
BJ Gary
This albumn is AMAZING! totally fresh Freedom should be song of the week