Band:	Illuminated Void
Album:	Veriditas
Style:	Dark ambient, Progressive rock, Stoner metal
Release date:	March 2023

01. The Maze Of Sleep
02. Virgo Lucifera
03. The Narrow Gate
04. God Is An All-Consuming Fire
05. Veriditas / Equinox

The first time I mentioned Illuminated Void on Metal Storm in January 2022, I referred to Matt Schmitz’ Sleestak as ‘not the most active band’; given the output of his various projects since that article, it feels positively ridiculous describing anything in relation to Schmitz as ‘not active’.

Readers may be familiar with Sleestak, as BitterCOld has championed the band pretty much since they first released music. Yes, there was a 9-year gap between The Fall Of Altrusia and Aeon, but there’s been a pretty quick album turnaround for Sleestak either side of that gap, with Harbinger arriving pretty quickly after Aeon. Schmitz has very much filled the time around Sleestak albums with other musical endeavours, however; since the inception of the Psyclopean solo ambient project in 2017, he’s managed to rack up 19 releases of various forms. On top of that, since 2021, additional solo project Illuminated Void has not only been brought into being, but is now on its third record, and is sounding very different to how it did on the 2022 self-titled debut.

Initially, Illuminated Void wasn’t far off Psyclopean; both were synth-based ambient projects, and that was true for both the 2022 Illuminated Void releases. However, the project has evolved quite extensively since then, as Veriditas is much closer to the music of Sleestak; still, it’s also very much its own thing. The main vestiges of the project’s ambient origins can be found in the two bookending tracks, each of which runs for 16:33 (which is just shy of the combined length of the 3 songs found in between), but even this is only in segments scattered throughout “The Maze Of Sleep” and at the end of “Veriditas / Equinox”. The rest of Veriditas can be classed as... well, nothing super obvious: parts of it are stoner doom or prog-stoner, but other parts of it are more psychedelic or ritualistic, or closer to classic prog rock, or reminiscent of Panopticon’s soft Americana tracks. It’s certainly not confined to one sound in particular, which does add some intrigue to the experience of listening to Veriditas.

Now, this is not an album without flaws; my issues with it emerge fairly early on with opening track “The Maze Of Sleep”, a song that has a variety of approaches, but which struggles to place them all coherently together. The heavy stoner doom, the mellow acoustic guitar segments, the spacey synths: all of these sound decent in isolation (particularly the acoustic parts), but it’s not a song that flows naturally. I also find the clean singing during a softer acoustic passage near the end a bit distracting, with several notes seemingly out of key with the instrumentation; the singing in general is not a strong suit of Veriditas, which is peculiar, as I’ve never found myself distracted by the clean vocals on Sleestak’s The Fall Of Altrusia or Aeon. Finally, while closer “Veriditas / Equinox” has a more logical composition than the opener, I do think some of its passages overrun; the stoner doom midsection in particular lacks enough evolution to remain compelling for its duration.

Still, even with some non-insignificant issues, there is quite a bit to like about Veriditas. After “The Maze Of Sleep” is over, Illuminated Void opts for some more compact writing, which works out well. The shamanish, psychedelic vibe of “Virgo Lucifera” is a nice one, with darkly atmospheric guitars, tom-heavy drumming and hazy vocals coming together nicely; the softer, proggier second half has the downside of some slightly dubious singing, but the prolonged, melodic guitar solo that dominates these closing stages is quite tender and evocative, and some similarly emotive and beautiful guitar leads and solos can be heard in “The Narrow Gate” too. Additionally, while the trudging, doomy middle of “Veriditas / Equinox” becomes a bit much for me, the proggy, dreamy stoner opening 5 minutes of this song is very solid.

Matt Schmitz isn’t a ‘guaranteed gold’ musician for me; my reservations over Harbinger last year made that clear enough. Nevertheless, when he’s on form, he creates some really captivating music, and Veriditas, without being a consistent example of him being on form, has quite a few passages that nicely exhibit his talents and range.