Dead Void
Hotel Cecil, Copenhagen - 2025
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
Dead Void is a mysterious one. They were supporting Macabre at Hotel Cecil in Copenhagen for their 40th anniversary tour, and this was the first I’d ever heard of them.
Two men on stage, though apparently they’re supposed to be three in the band. The band is said to be from Copenhagen, but the members seemingly come from England and Norway. There wasn’t a word of Danish spoken on stage - although to be fair, they didn’t speak much at all.
With only a ‘bleurgh’ to greet the crowd, A (Adam Wilkinson) and K (Kai Åsvik) entered the stage and launched straight into massive fog and an extremely heavy, doomy sound that, despite the lack of introduction, somehow spoke to me immediately. It didn’t take too long before the tempo was dialled up to 11 however, and we would soon learn that this was one of several tricks up this band’s sleeve. Multiple tempo changes, and while it was all bleak and dark, there were still somehow changes in mood. Both men growled out words that rarely could be interpreted, although A was the only one vocal between songs. There he growled things that could mostly be interpreted as song titles. None of them ever really acknowledged the crowd, neither during nor between songs, and when they were done some 40 or so minutes in, they just up and left.
While playing, none of them moved about at all, but they were still both quite active. The one breakout moment being K walking over and putting a foot on the bass drum as the band was about to go into their Black Sabbath cover of Into The Void. A brilliant, heavy, and haunting interpretation that was done instrumentally.
Six songs of death and doom, if I counted right, four of which I caught a title.
This was far from anything I had expected, but I have to admit, I was taken by both sound and delivery. Strangely, because there was so much that by my usual standards shouldn’t have worked, but it just did. A perfect example of coming in, delivering, and leaving the audience wanting to know more, hear more, discover more.
Dead Void left in as much of a mystery as they had entered, but they had left behind a lingering interest. That’s a tough skill to manage.
Setlist (incomplete):
The Reptilian Drive
Cranial Devastation
Into The Void (Black Sabbath cover)
Sadistic Mind
Two men on stage, though apparently they’re supposed to be three in the band. The band is said to be from Copenhagen, but the members seemingly come from England and Norway. There wasn’t a word of Danish spoken on stage - although to be fair, they didn’t speak much at all.
With only a ‘bleurgh’ to greet the crowd, A (Adam Wilkinson) and K (Kai Åsvik) entered the stage and launched straight into massive fog and an extremely heavy, doomy sound that, despite the lack of introduction, somehow spoke to me immediately. It didn’t take too long before the tempo was dialled up to 11 however, and we would soon learn that this was one of several tricks up this band’s sleeve. Multiple tempo changes, and while it was all bleak and dark, there were still somehow changes in mood. Both men growled out words that rarely could be interpreted, although A was the only one vocal between songs. There he growled things that could mostly be interpreted as song titles. None of them ever really acknowledged the crowd, neither during nor between songs, and when they were done some 40 or so minutes in, they just up and left.
While playing, none of them moved about at all, but they were still both quite active. The one breakout moment being K walking over and putting a foot on the bass drum as the band was about to go into their Black Sabbath cover of Into The Void. A brilliant, heavy, and haunting interpretation that was done instrumentally.
Six songs of death and doom, if I counted right, four of which I caught a title.
This was far from anything I had expected, but I have to admit, I was taken by both sound and delivery. Strangely, because there was so much that by my usual standards shouldn’t have worked, but it just did. A perfect example of coming in, delivering, and leaving the audience wanting to know more, hear more, discover more.
Dead Void left in as much of a mystery as they had entered, but they had left behind a lingering interest. That’s a tough skill to manage.
Setlist (incomplete):
The Reptilian Drive
Cranial Devastation
Into The Void (Black Sabbath cover)
Sadistic Mind
