The fact that Jack Bergin hasn’t let the growth and progress of Void Of Vision slow down at any point over the last few years is nothing short of extraordinary. But it is in the way that he has faced off against the challenges that life has thrown at him that the band have been able to find themselves where they are today.

Those challenges kickstarted back in 2022 as Jack suffered a seizure, later revealed to be caused by an arteriovenous malformation, a tangle of blood vessels in his brain. Not letting his health stop him from doing what he loved, Jack continued to tour with VOV, and complete the writing and recording of their ambitious three-piece epic ‘CHRONICLES’. Eventually listening to his body and taking a step back to keep his blood pressure at a sensible level, things were made even scarier when he suffered a brain bleed in April of 2023. Fully putting anything band related on the back burner so surgery and recovery could take place, it got him thinking even more about what anything of this means and whether he is taking the right route.

It was within this place, between Jack as an artist and Jack as a human being, that ‘What I’ll Leave Behind’ came to be. A progressive, powerful and poignant piece of modern metalcore genius, it is a masterful musing on what it means to consider your legacy. Mortality, ambition and just how far you are willing to go to leave your mark, it is as emotionally raw as it is ethereally grand. It is also a reminder to us all to make the most of every moment we have, because we don’t know whether it will be our last.

To dive deeper into the journey that got us here, Rock Sound sat down with Jack for an inspirational chat…

ROCK SOUND: First off, how have you been doing? Is it a case of seeing how you are feeling on a day-to-day basis and going from there?

JACK: “It’s not as day-to-day as I expected things to be, but it is constant check-ups. Sometimes, it is getting radiotherapy; other times, it is getting MRI results. It gets exhausting at times, but it also feels like a bit of a blur. It’s pretty insane that the whole time I have been in these centres and hospitals, a lot of the patients are super old. It’s rare to see young people going in and out of there, but I am very much thanking the lord that I am tackling this at such a young age. I feel like with everything I am going through right now, with the stress and the time it eats up, I would be struggling at any other age, and I have no idea how all these people battle through it. I feel very grateful to be tackling it whilst I have fitness and health, and even more grateful that I get to do what I do alongside it. A lot of people would be shutting it the fuck down.”

RS: Considering just how much you have done as a band throughout this time of difficulty and confusion, it is absolutely inspiring. And yeah, there aren’t many people, or bands, who would have pushed as much as Void Of Vision have within that time as well…

JACK: “Yeah, it’s very easy not to stop and smell the roses when you’re as busy as this. But you’re right. Looking back to where we were on ‘Hyperdaze’ in 2019 and thinking how bizarre me even singing would have been, especially in how I am doing it now, is crazy. I would never have thought of tackling a full fucking chorus. It’s insane to consider how much time can pass like that, but also, pain is very much power in that regard. It’s weird that people can take one of two ways in life. Seeing artists use their pain to create such beautiful outcomes is bizarre to go through yourself.

“Art is healing for us, and much of our brain is dedicated to that. Once a creative mind is focused on that, you can’t really stop that. And that is how it has been for me ever since I got this news. I’ve wanted to reflect and use it to make something of it because it all becomes this really sad thing without that. People go through these things and don’t take hold of it and leave their mark. This has made me want to do it ten times more. That’s where we angled a lot of this record and what we want to be doing now.”

RS: It’s very much that even with the first bit of news you got, you were still working on the ‘Chronicles’ projects and pushing yourself. And it feels as though without that, you wouldn’t have thrown yourself into making those as varied and volatile as you did. How do you look back on the decision to not slow down at that point from where you are now?

JACK: “Even back then, it still feels so blurry. I have always been asking myself big questions like that. I also have operated on a play-by-play, month-by-month basis. I know deep down that’s not the healthiest way to live, and I think there are moments on this record where I talk about that. But I was destroying myself, throwing myself around like a ragdoll back then. I wasn’t thinking about anything, and only recently have I been able to stop and reflect on it. It was probably not the smartest decision to go that hard regarding my health, but my love for this is on another level. It’s taken over my life for the past decade, leading you to make decisions based on passion more than anything. Sometimes that just takes control.

“It’s crazy to see the journey even more from those ‘Chronicles’ EPs to now. I consider that whole to be not just about musical experimentation but also about experimentation with my life. It’s played such a huge part in what we do, and it may seem erratic for some; the people who have been paying attention will see that all those years of shooting stuff out there and going nonstop have paid off. We’ve landed on this record, an amalgamation of everything we have been trying to do, gluing itself together. It just feels so right.”

RS: The fact that you were able to put a name to this side of you, the side facing the crowds, via the Angel Of Darkness, surely helped contextualise the more personal parts of what you wanted to do. A lot of that also came down to how you wanted to look. But what did it truly mean to be able to separate the different pieces of what makes you tick and take ownership of them?

JACK: “It’s so bizarre that people will truly only know that one side of me. They will never understand the two sides fully. It’s also funny that we have placed the track ‘Angel of Darkness’ at the end of the record because it really is a lingering feeling that has always been there and always existed within me. It’s just the bold ideas that we needed to be brought forward by some unexpected guide. Having the opportunity thrust on me to attempt to make a diamond out of this pressure has opened so much.

“My alopecia kickstarted me experimenting with different looks and a whole new level of how we can present ourselves because I was suddenly struck with the challenge of how I would present myself in everyday life. Not just what to look like but what would make me feel comfortable, which encouraged even more experimentation. We may have dialled things back to a more raw and honest look, but it means I can get up on stage in a more normal get-up and feel so much more comfortable in how I look and feel. That’s a result for someone who was going through the most insane body dysmorphia two years ago.”

RS: What was it like to start to piece together the rest of the record from there? Alongside that, you had to reveal to the rest of the band exactly what you were now going through, and that must have been a challenge in itself…

JACK: “There was so much existentialism within the making of this. When we parked the making of the record after Knotfest and when I had my bigger health hurdles to overcome, we all took a step back. Then, when we all went back to the studio, the songs were already prepared. But vocally, I was still sitting so fresh off of all of this news and these fresh feelings that I was trying to surmount. It was also going to be tough for me, but the blessing was being in the studio with the guys and with our producer, Sam Bassal. He worked on our first record; we have known him since we were teenagers. It’s a familiar face; I didn’t have to go and trauma dump on this stranger. Half the nights would be me sitting there on his couch and just talking and asking the big questions. From our personal lives to the more grandiose things. It just birthed a lot of really honest material, and it was all off the top of the dome.

“A lot of the album talks about opportunities and moments when you must make decisions and address bigger things for the first time. A lot of people will go through a job they hate for 40 years, and they wouldn’t have known when to call it quits and pull the plug. It’s important to think about those big things and ask the big questions of yourself, and I hope that the album sparks that in people to do it in their own lives. I feel like without change and hurdles being thrown at me, I wouldn’t have asked them of myself and would have just carried on down the straight and narrow, living my normal 9-5 life and not knowing. It’s a blessing in disguise.”

RS: It’s pretty heart-breaking that you have to face the prospect of oblivion to be in a position where you start to think like this, but sometimes, that’s just how life has to be. And when you get there, the clarity must be very refreshing. It’s a unique place to be…

JACK: “It is always going to come from a place like that. You can go through so many nightmare scenarios, but the peace you find is huge. There is no quiet quite like the one you receive once you have reached that peace. There’s something so fucking special about how something that was once so big and troublesome leaned overhead and damaged the way that you thought it could be. It changes everything in a place where you have tackled and understood it. You start finding it easier to make big decisions and do things you would never have imagined yourself doing.

“From now on, I have no fear of the end because there’s always something beautiful to come from it. It’s important to understand that because then you are just running from these things. Some people are scared to jump into the deep end because it is scary. I have been scared for years, and you withdraw yourself a lot and don’t do many things you wish you did. Now everything seems possible. It’s a heavy way to live, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

RS: The main message of this album is the hope that you can leave a mark and know that you have done something that is bigger than yourself. But also, whilst that may be an aim of some sort, it doesn’t actually matter because its existence is absolutely enough. And as you look to the future, whatever that may end up being, you will always know what you have been capable of…

JACK: “The idea of numbers, charts, and everything that comes with it is so behind us now. This piece of art means so much more to us than ever could because of the realisation that we need to live in the moment. We have been doing that to an extent, what with the way that the music industry is at the moment but being able to bring this album out that has made us realise that we need to do anything and everything that we want to do now. Cherish every moment like it’s your last because you never fucking know. Whether you’re in a band or not, everything that you do needs to be appreciated and loved and the moments you enjoy need to be taken with care because it could be the last. I think there is a beauty to that, and we have wanted to capture that in everything we have coming up. The true realisation of happiness is taking those moments before you by the throat and really using them.”

‘What I’ll Leave Behind’ is out now.