Considering the gritty and abraisive tendencies of New Zealand rock, and looking at the song titles on
Into the Void ("Satan Rise," "Wall of Death," "Black Widow"), it's pretty easy to see where the band is coming from -- the album's tracks take a rhythmic and ultradramatic rock breakdown that verges of
Birthday Party territory and then breaks it up into fractured excess. It's hard to tell whether the record's hyberbolic near-camp is earnest or intended as a deconstruction of sorts; if one chooses the former, the album is very bad indeed -- but in the latter light,
Into the Void is almost appealing odd.