The hard rock band WHITE VOID’s debut album “Anti” (also on Nuclear Blast) was one of the most colorful and surprising releases of 2021, hailed by the press as an absolute whirlwind of occult rock and melodic new wave. But singer and band leader Lars Are Nedland — also a longtime member of BORKNAGAR and SOLEFALD — clearly needed a contrast to all that color and flamboyance, and so BLACKVOID came into being. Not a band to wait around, the debut album “Antithesis” was recorded almost immediately and is set for release via Nuclear Blast on May 27, 2022 — in grimy contrast to the colorful and melodic release from WHITE VOID. BLACK VOID is a punk- and black metal-infused band completed by drummer Tobias Solbakk (IHSAHN, WHITE VOID, IN VAIN) and guitarist Jostein Thomassen (BORKNAGAR, PROFANE BURIAL). “Antithesis” is an album that pays tribute to fifty years of punk and forty years of black metal — a musical equivalent of a punk with a Mohawk fighting a guy in corpse paint. Add to that guest vocal appearances by black metal royalty Sakis Tolis of ROTTING CHRIST and Hoest of TAAKE, and “Antithesis” comes across as a kind of statement: a nihilistic musical explosion toppling morality and saluting aggression while forcing you to tap your foot to its relentless drive.