Arriving exactly one year after NULL, VOID is KEN mode’s ninth full-length album. More than merely the follow-up to NULL, VOID is a companion to that album, inspired by the same events, and written and recorded within the same time frame.
KEN mode’s Jesse Matthewson states: “This album is the companion piece to 2022’s NULL album. Both were written and produced at the same time, throughout the pandemic, and recorded by Andrew Schneider in the fall of 2021. The two-album arc was written with the intention of being two separate works that could be coupled together to make one full album.”
NULL and VOID are not interchangeable; rather, VOID articulates the despondency that followed the pain so vividly expressed through NULL. Matthewson states: “VOID conveys the overwhelming sadness and disappointment of 2021, after the initial crazed shock of 2020. We saw our circumstances continue to be held up by the lowest common denominator, as we attempted to move forward with our lives.”
VOID’s opening track, “The Shrike,” buzzes with urgency – a cry for help, a declaration of dejection, emanating from the precise location where NULL left off. Matthewson describes the song in this understated way: “It’s our version of a classic, driving rock song. Equal parts Drive Like Jehu and Queens of the Stone Age.”