Body Void – Atrocity Machine (Review)

This is the fourth album from Body Void, a doom band from the US.

Body Void are a great band, let’s just get that out of the way first, before we do anything else. As such, this review primarily exists to let you know just how great Atrocity Void is, because what would be the point otherwise? I mean, could Body Void have finally released a stinker?

(Before we answer that, also make sure that you check out Body Void’s immense back catalogue – 2018’s I Live Inside a Burning House, 2019’s You Will Know the Fear You Forced upon Us, their 2020 split with Keeper, and 2021’s Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth).

Which brings us neatly to Atrocity Machine, and the 44 minutes of new material it assaults us with. This album may be foul, unhealthy, evil, and malignant, but a stinker it is not.

Featuring some of their shortest work, (relatively speaking), an upgraded dose of noise and electronics, and their most colourful artwork, Atrocity Machine is the sound of Body Void exploring their imposing doom from angles both familiar and new. The band’s absolutely crushing heaviness is intact and well, yet has an increased atmospheric presence. Atrocity Machine is absolutely apocalyptic. Grim and dark, with malevolent streaks of venomous effects and sinister noise enrichments, this is Body Void at their most terrifying.

Through massive doom heaviness, scathing sludge intensity, and mood-driven darkness, the new Body Void is colossally good. The oppressive sound of Atrocity Machine is simultaneously impenetrable and expansive. There’s a duality here that wants to draw listeners in closer, while also suffocating them with immense walls of distortion and harrowing synthscapes.

The abrasive nature of Atrocity Machine won’t be for everyone, but don’t let that put you off, as Body Void are worth enduring for the vast sonic rewards that they reap. The sheer hostility of this album, with its threatening veneer and menacing demeanour, is bound to make many a hardy doomster pause and reflect on their life choices, but persevere, I implore you, as Atrocity Machine really is a great album.

Essential listening.