Impressive Debut
The Last Void hail all the way from the Central American country of Costa Rica. Not known for its Metal bands, but on recent listening, I can give you on good authority that its about to be heard…and loud. Inspired by another Costa Rican band, Times Forgotten (review 12/13) Felipe Cartin (Drums), Mauricio Madigral (Rhythm Guitars) and Alberto Cartin (lead Guitars) established the band back in 2004. Felipe and Alberto are brothers in arms and have been paying together for the past 11 years, and Mauricio was a childhood friend of both. About a year later they recruited Adriana Munoz (vocals) who really blew their mind with her vocals. She has been singing from a young age, inspired by her musician mother and has entered successfully into the family business.
Back in 2007 TLV decided to start preproduction of the whole album, trying really hard to polish details as best as they could, ended up having a whole new ball game, every song on this record ended up nothing like the originals! It was a really stressful period (everything that couldve affected production times actually did! Pestilence, locusts, you name it - it happened). Akin to the great Spinal Tap, but in their own inimitable fashion they also went through a series of bass players, and ended up having to use two friends of theirs playing the bass for the record - Max Esquivel and Andres Cordero.
After the record was finished they auditioned Brian Torres, who is currently their bass player. Based on previous history it may not be for long!!
Like all good bands, the struggle is part of who they are, and they I tell ya TLV are pretty damn good. Imagine if Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) and Sharon Den Adel (Within Tempation) had a kinky threesome and the offspring was ‘The Last Void’ then you wouldn’t be too far from the truth. For a debut album TLV have hit gold, expressing themselves vividly for such a young bunch. Their music rises and falls like the tide, melodic, to progressive, to dark passages, and takes the listener on a ride and a half. My only gripe is the occasional blokey grunty scream over Adriana’s vocals. ‘Pain Part 1:Frustration’ sets their stall for ‘State of Mind’ and if you are gonna kick start the album, make sure its with a good one. Adrian’s vocals fit the tone perfectly with the music’s changing styles. ‘Kindergarden Stuff’ again is yet another strong track - nicely balanced, with free reign to batter you with Satriani composition on minute and Hard Rock the next. ‘Metal Mind’s’ opening salvo is close to Dream Theaters work - pushing the boundaries covering prog / jazz fusion, but most of all it’s METAL! ‘Icarus’ / M.A.F.A Interlude both calm the soul, before the pace is upped for the second half of the album.
TLV are still finding their style, but what they have so far is a bunch of very compelling songs. It’s a bit fractured in parts (‘Illusion’ a prime example) but this is due to their expressive nature, not being afraid to try out their musical smorgasbord on the audience , for this they deserve credit
For an album to be self produced, and handled so will is a credit to TLV, even the sleeve booklet has been produced so professionally. TLV say they are inspired by Times Forgotton, but on the basis of this album, it wont be long before the roles are reversed. Impressive debut.