Sometimes an album is rife with palpable energy, aggression and most importantly, confrontational honesty, so much so that it remains on repeat for endless hours, constantly taking you to new places. Enabler’s All Hail The Void is one such album. The Milwaukee hardcore outfit, frankly, has laid down one the hardcore records of the year for this, their Southern Lord debut. Having a released a split 7” earlier this year with Dublin’s Drainland, the two slabs of searing metallic hardcore, it would seem, were only a very vague preview of what was to come with this new LP.

Enabler walks a risky tightrope with this album. It’s equal parts misanthropic and enraged while also oddly positive and optimistic at times and dare we say buoyant too. By hurling the listening to and from between these disparate worlds, All Hail The Void is constantly keeping you on your toes. The only real constant to be found is that, sonically, this album is always barrelling down the path full speed and recklessly with hazardous levels of adrenaline.

When the eerie acoustic intro opens the album and erupts into F.A.T.H., it’s vividly clear straight away that something unholy and belligerent has uncoiled for all to see. Jeff Lohrber shouts, screams and roars his way through all of these 12 tracks, never taking a moment’s rest, while riffs flail wildly everywhere like the angular guitar work of Speechless that mercilessly cuts through the air.

The title track marks a huge turning point in the album’s flow as gang vocals and simply pummelling verses take over, shamelessly taking influences from late 90s metalcore like Poison the Well’s The Opposite of December to a degree. When this particularly standout moment dies away, it makes room for the utterly invigorating True Love. Very much trekking the positive vibes of this album, the short three minute flurry’s execution and lyrics are totally life-affirming and even beautiful.

Swerving back to their more aggressive side is Save Yourself, another belligerent and wholly unforgiving offering that sees the band through to the end of the record with Trust’s hauntingly melodic riffs and album closer Funeral Dirge is fittingly titled, bringing this record to a cold end.

All Hail The Void contains a vast spectrum of feeling in each track, whether it’s the vivacity and zeal of True Love or the red-eyed rage found in Fuck Today, which previously appeared on the Drainland split. This is an album with absolutely zero filler to be found, executed with a tight flow; it’s an album that warrants repeated listens start to finish, skipping a song is next to impossible.

Drop-d Rating: 9/10

Enabler