Northlane – Singularity
The amount that this band has influenced each and every member of Void Of Vision is an understatement, it’s actually crazy. Their album Singularity is a huge one that we grew up with just as we began entering the heavy music scene. With that being said, we were actually lucky enough to be able to work alongside Jon (Deiley, guitarist) from Northlane as a co-producer for this record, which was such a full circle moment. The man is a genius and I think the connection between how influenced we have all been by Northlane’s record Singularity and having him come on board with Hyperdaze helped tenfold with our creative and technical output. It was also just incredibly special for us all.
Golden Features – SECT
This album is such a big, operatic, dark and even heavy sounding piece of work for the genre it stems from and I love it. I feel like in particular, Golden Features’ work is one of the driving influences behind all the electronic aspects of this album. We experimented with that side of things with our single ‘Kill All My Friends’ and loved adding that extra dynamic to our sound. We’ve always been so huge on it and we definitely wanted to push the envelope for ourselves by including even more of it on the album. It was just a matter of working out how to incorporate it tastefully into our music, and with influence taken from SECT and elsewhere, I think we managed to capture it perfectly.
Monuments – The Amanuensis
Monuments are just so groovy whilst not being run of the mill “chuggy” and I love that on their album The Amanuensis. Hearing a band being able to do that with riffs really made us want to challenge ourselves to find different ways of being heavy with guitar work for Hyperdaze. A lot of the guitar work on the album is different for us, not necessarily in terms the groove, but in the driving force behind it. We wanted it to translate just as heavy live as it came out on the record and that’s one thing we absolutely can’t wait to debut on stage.
Architects – All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us
This record sets such a nihilistic tone from the get go – not only instrumentally but also lyrically. I remember hearing people talk about this when it was about to come out and how dark it was going to be. That’s something I’ve always wanted to capture with Void Of Vision, as grim as it sounds. I’d say Hyperdaze wraps up pure hatred, self-loathing and nihilism and that’s exactly how I wanted it. It’s selfish, confused, brash and me at my most raw and vulnerable. I was inspired by the tone that All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us and I think with Hyperdaze we’ve created a similar snapshot of complete misery. Ultimately, I like the idea that people can really be involved in this little world you’ve created and feel what you feel for 30 minutes.
Movements – Feel Something
Lyrically a lot of Hyperdaze is taken from a place in my head that I’ve neglected for a long time. ‘Hyperdaze’ is a state in which one is simply not there. It was a detachment from reality, where I numbed myself to all my problems. It’s a sense of hopelessness that I’ve been falling back on for far too long. That said, it was tough trying to put such raw thoughts into my lyrics and express them artistically. How Movements were able to do that so coherently on their record Feel Something was so refreshing to me. It helped me take that leap into this elaborate realm that I created with Hyperdaze, where I could wade around until I found the perfect way to compliment what I was feeling in my head with the instrumentals.
Hyperdaze arrives via UNFD on Friday September 13.
