The Unquiet Void: Music to Go Mad To
Jason Wallach
Bandcamp
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons

Today I want to tell you about The Unquiet Void. In addition to having a really cool name, TUV makes some of the eeriest, creepiest, and well-made music out there. Being instrumental, the haunting tunes are soundtracks. Either legit soundtracks for movies, or a soundscape for the movies in your mind. You all have those too, right? Yeah, I thought so.

My first exposure to The Unquiet Void was as background music for a Call of Cthulhu game. Hey, I am an old school game geek, and I love setting the right mood for my games with the appropriate atmospheric sounds. Since the Call of Cthulhu game is based off the weird and horrific works of H.P. Lovecraft and others, this unquiet and downright chilling music was perfect for it. So right off the bat, if you are a gamer of any horrific games, The Unquiet Void is what you want to have on during your games.

Now if that was all this music was good for, I wouldn’t feel the need to tell others about it, but there is so much more to this stuff. I love listening to it as I drive to and from work, especially coming home after sun set. I love listening to it as I walk my dog down the wooded trail near my house, especially in Autumn. Nothing, and I mean nothing sets the mood for those long, cold walks as it does. I even love listening to it as I drift off to sleep. Yes, I know, I’m weird. But as a writer of the weird and horrific myself, I most often listen to it as I write. It gets the juices flowing and helps put me in the right headspace. Hell, even when I’m doing mundane work, like reviewing, I usually have it on. I do right now, one of The Unquiet Void’s latest offerings: Closet Space. So if melodies of the weird and eerie are your thing, let me briefly give you a heads up on three offerings from The Void.

I’ll start with Closet Space, as it’s currently twisting its way into my ear holes. I said The Unquiet Void does soundtracks, and this is legitimately one of those. Made for an independent horror movie from 2008 by the same title, I had never heard of it before, but after listening to the soundtrack, I was intrigued. After reading the IMDb synopsis, it’s now a must. In brief: “There are thin places between this world and the next where dark, ancient, unfathomable beings chew and dig, moving inexorably closer, driven by alien thoughts and desires.” Yeah, that has me all over it, and let me say that when I do watch the film, I hope it can live up to the movie in my mind that this soundtrack gave it. Stay tuned.

IN[B]ETWEEN is another independent movie that got a lot of love on the film circuit. It is soon coming to Blu-ray/DVD/streaming and I can’t wait to check in out. I’ll point you to its official webpage, if you’re interested (http://whatisinbetween.com), but in brief it has theoretical physics, science gone wrong, and “something older than time itself that has been waiting through the aeons for the chance to return.” Yes, please! Again, if the film is half as good as the atmospheric, creeping sounds The Unquiet Void did for it, it’s going to be good.

Then there is a collection of music not made for any movie with the H.P. Lovecraft would have approved title of So Comes the Yawning Darkness. It’s sort like a concept album that’s all about two Great Old Ones and lover of Lovecraft should recognize: The Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep and The Demon Sultan Azathoth album. With a heavy and direct influence from H.P. Lovecraft’s own “The Haunter of the Dark.” Maybe because of its direct relation to HPL, of the three albums, this one is my favorite and what I turn to most often.

If you are a fan of atmospheric music to set the creepy mood, looking for inspiration for your reading or writing time, or want something for background music for your next game, you can’t do any better than The Unquiet Void. If you’re interested you can find his stuff here, including select samples of music to listen to for free, either here: https://theunquietvoid.bandcamp.com or here: https://soundcloud.com/the-unquiet-void