AD Review – Friends of the Void

For my first review back after such a long upgra-VACATION…yes, vacation…I am happy to bring you a fresh batch of AD reviews! They may not be as frequent as they once were, however I’d like to shoot for quality over quantity this time around. So please relax and enjoy!

Living in Maine, the heart of King Country, you tend to accept and adapt to the weird. Cemeteries dedicated to your most beloved pets, yearly reports of a prom dance gone horribly awry, huge glass domes enveloping whole towns, all of this is common place. Travel just an hour south of my town, and you find yourself traveling the twisting and eerie roads of Massachusetts. You may find that, while coasting leisurely along a country road, you see a dark and foreboding structure in the distance. The sun is out in full force, and yet a stray cloud always seems to swallow the light whenever you look at it. A rock suddenly hits the bottom of your stomach, and visions of otherworldly horrors dance at the edge of your sanity. You look back at the road ahead of you, and reality seems to snap back together. Miskatonic. Lovecraft.

I mention these titans of horror, as I’ve found a lot of their influence in this AD. While it may take a couple of listens through to get a solid grasp of the story, it is worth every single second. I was enamored by the stories and the characters behind them. This AD is worth the listen, especially as it is fairly new still, and has almost limitless potential.

This is Friends of the Void.

As I said, this AD really brings Lovecraft and Stephen King to the front of my mind. You have a sinister and otherworldly being trying to attack our main character, Elliot, right from the word go. Elliot has barricaded himself inside a lighthouse to try and escape both the torrential storm and the Lurking Horror (see what I did there????). While holed up in this Dark Tower (I’m on a roll!), Elliot finds some tapes and an old recorder. He decides to play these, thinking they are music, to try and calm himself down enough to think of a way out of the mess he’s in. What he finds are stories of the odd, the eerie, and the slightly off your rocker.

Season one deals with Danny and his quest for the submarine (trust me, you’ll want to listen to get the full story), while season two introduces new characters, as well as fleshes out the AIs and the techno-possession (I’m TELLING you, go LISTEN!) Both seasons tie into each other, however they are capable of standing on their own in terms of the small stories in each episode.

While this AD may not have a plethora of voice actors, this is made up for with the stellar editing and voice manipulation done by the creators. Plus, I absolutely LOVE the voices of the AI. They bring the laughs without drawing it out too much and taking away from the main story. Comedy in these kinds of AD can be hit or miss. Consider these two right on target!

Overall, Friends of the Void makes you uneasy with some of the stories it tells. You grow to really love Elliot and the AI, while wanting to punch the techno-possession in the most corporeal part. The humor is there, the creepiness is well done, and you don’t keep wondering which character is which as they all have the same voice actor. The VAs do an outstanding job, the editing and sound is very well done, and you’d be hard pressed to find another AD with AI as funny as these two. Do yourself a favor and subscribe to Friends of the Void.