For years, the area surrounding Flemish city Ghent has proven to be a fertile breeding ground for innovative and experimental sounds in the realm of hard and heavy music. In 2021, the home of the Belgian artist collective Church Of Ra has brought forth a new group that is set to conquer the extreme music world by storm: Its name is PREDATORY VOID – and its members are no strangers to the scene.

Amenra, Oathbreaker and Living Gate guitarist Lennart Bossu started writing and home-recording the song ideas that would lay the foundation for PREDATORY VOID as a means to stay sane and occupied during the pandemic when playing live was not possible. As it became clear that the straightforward dark and heavy material didn’t quite fit Amenra, he quickly gathered musicians from his local scene to turn this project into a full band, now consisting of vocalist and tattoo artist Lina R. (Cross Bringer), bassist Tim De Gieter (Amenra, Doodseskader, Much Luv Studio), guitarist Thijs De Cloedt (Cobra The Impaler, ex-Aborted) and drummer Vincent Verstrepen (Carnation). “When forming this band, one of the criteria was that we all had to live at a reasonable driving distance from each other”, Lennart Bossu explains. “I wanted to absolutely avoid the difficulties of having band members scattered across continents and form a band that would be able to easily get in a van together and play live shows, as that remains one of the greatest things about playing music.”

It’s an eclectic group with varied musical interests from shoegaze and doom to hardcore, black and death metal. Singer and lyricist Lina R. cites the likes of King Woman, Funeral Circle, Dream Unending, Seraphim, Have A Nice Life and Kind Dude as inspirations for this project, but there’s much more: the “clean guitars over heavy music approach” of bands like Disembowelment and Esoteric as well as “eerie, Swans-like moments”, as Lennart Bossu states – which combined turn PREDATORY VOID into something bigger than an ordinary metal band. “Musically, I tap into more or less the same energy and feelings as when I made music with Oathbreaker. I had a short debate with myself whether I should forcibly create something that sounds totally different, but it just felt more honest to stick with the music that naturally flows out of me”, the songwriter explains. “I kind of consider PREDATORY VOID Oathbreaker’s more obnoxious and delinquent sibling who will not hesitate to punch you in the face if needed.”

While the band started out as Lennart Bossu’s brainchild and he is the main songwriter, the creative process for their debut album “Seven Keys To The Discomfort Of Being” was fueled by teamwork and everyone bringing in their strengths: Tim De Gieter’s deep growls added another dimension to the vocals and his experience as a recording engineer led the production from a lo-fi sound into a more contemporary direction; Lina R.’s drive and influence as a lyricist advanced the songwriting process; all the while her bandmates motivated her to experiment with her vocals more than ever before and become more transparent and vulnerable – something that’s also shown in her self-reflective lyrics. “There is definitely a theme, but it’s not something I could put into one sentence”, she explains. “To me, it’s not a depressive or aggressive record but more of a multilayered journey to the core of a human being: looking inwards, disassociating at times, expecting the worst, making peace with your flaws and accepting frustrations.”

Having finished the recordings for “Seven Keys To The Discomfort Of Being” in early 2022, PREDATORY VOID chose baptism by fire, playing renowned Dutch underground festival Soulcrusher in fall 2022 without a single released song. The performance left them with an eager fanbase as well as a new level of motivation and faith in what they set out to do. “We’ve done a few more shows since and we notice that, although we have experience in bands, this band is a really its own thing; a new-born that will need time to develop and be fully realized”, Lennart Bossu summarizes. “We are not a marketing strategy, but five humans who have the irresistible urge to play music and will without a doubt fuck up now and then. I hope that this will at least be interesting for people to watch.”