The Voidz are led by a man named Julian Casablancas. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because prior to starting The Voidz, Casablancas was a member of a little band called The Strokes. The Strokes started the New York underground indie/garage rock scene and in the early aughts many hailed them as the saviors of rock music. Eventually though, The Strokes faded — they stopped writing compelling and exciting songs and lost their edge. The group never officially split up, but they’ve only put out two albums and an EP in the last 12 years.
Enter The Voidz. The band formed in 2013 and released their first record “Tyranny” in 2014. The album was noisy, abrasive and packed to the brim with off-the-wall, unfocused musical moments. “Tyranny” functioned less as an album but instead as a place where Casablancas could indulge in his wildest musical ideas. On their newest record “Virtue,” Casablancas and his new band soften up their edges a bit and deliver a much more cohesive and tuneful experience.
That’s not to say “Virtue” isn’t still wildly experimental. There is a bit of everything on this album, ranging from synthpop to heavy metal and even hip-hop. The album kicks off with lead single “Leave It In My Dreams,” which is an early contender for song of the year. It’s the best Strokes song the band never recorded. The track’s tropically-tinted guitars and driving drum beat propel the song until it reaches its monster of a chorus where Casablancas croons in a nasally falsetto “Somebody’s taking much too long.” The track is energetic, cathartic and extremely catchy.
The second song “QYURRYUS” is another standout. Described by the band as “Cyber-Arabic-Prison-Jazz,” the track more than lives up to its billing. The song starts off with a pulsing, distorted bassline, over which Casablancas does an odd medieval chant through AutoTune. It culminates in a foot stomping outro where the band chants “I lost what’s mine” while Casablancas alternates between having a vocal freakout through a vocoder and doing his best Boris Karloff impression. It’s a really odd mixture of sounds but in the end it works. Curious though it may seem, “QYURRYUS” is a top-tier track on the album.
The album also filled with lots of other weird sonic curveballs. “Pyramid of Bones” features a scorching hot heavy metal guitar riff that sounds like it was plucked directly off a Motorhead album. “We’re Where We Were” is a legitimate nu metal song that actually sounds good and “ALieNNatioN” has a beautiful cloud rap-esque instrumental over which Casablancas sounds surprisingly smooth while singing/rapping. In theory, these ideas should not work. However, the band fully commits to each idea they attempt, resulting in songs that sound like labors of love instead of the self-indulgent messes they could so easily be.
The album is not without its flaws, though. The creative well seems to run dry towards the back end of the album as the band rehashes a bunch of old, previously heard ideas with mixed results. For example, “Black Hole” is just a lazy and significantly less exciting retread of “Pyramid of Bones.” “Pink Ocean” is a rather bland and forgettable piece of synthpop. The folksy ballad “Think Before You Drink” is a bit of a sleeper as it lacks any real emotional weight due to its extremely corny lyrics. However, these tracks are just minor missteps in an otherwise fantastic album.
While the album could have been improved with a little editing of the tracklisting, “Virtue” hits the mark more often than it misses. The sounds of the album are unpredictable, energetic and an absolute blast to listen to for almost every second of its 58 minute run time. It sounds like Julian Casablancas is back to actually enjoying writing songs again. When you combine that with him being at the top of his songwriting game, it creates one fantastic record. If The Voidz continue to experiment in this manner and continue to make albums like “Virtue,” they are definitely a band to keep on the radar. The Voidz will keep on making the music they want to make. There’s nothing anyone can do to stop them.
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