Devoid of Thought - Devoid of Thought (2026) Review

Devoid of Thought hail from the Lombardy region in Italy, and spent the better part of the last decade honing their powerful self-defining debut record, Outer World Graves (2021). With that album, the band attempted - while not leaving the crater - to handle death metal’s most perplexed branches and reassemble them into something new, and as immune to passive listening as possible. I admit to having missed the initial shockwave at the date of release, but measured Devoid of Thought a bit later and was fully aware of the next step in the form of this self-titled offering, as it approached.

The album runs five tracks across about thirty six minutes, structured in a way that may appear baffling at first listen. Initial track “Panspermic Bio-Dome” is, in the best sense, an affront to introductory patience, as it scatters a load of dissonant riffing below fiery vocal layers, and on disharmonized movements without any appetite for pattern pursuit. It presents the record’s most daring moment before Devoid of Thought establish themselves with it, specifically the inconversable, deconstructed jam section in the middle of the composition, bringing instrumental psych bands to mind, and binding to a more classic prog / tech-death reading that ends as abruptly as it starts.

A more fluid, almost conversational writing style traverses through warped temporality, with tracks constantly juggling irregular tempos with evident ease and pleasure. Like the challenging first track, follow-up “Chronos” features a gnarled voice that now states: “what you call man, we call time”. I could be mistaken, but this might be a paraphrasing reference to ethnobotanist Terence McKenna who said something starkly similar, reflecting his philosophy that humans don’t simply live within time, but time is a fundamental element that humanity itself is composed of. 

With just a handful of words, it then becomes easier to decipher the band’s conceptual and aesthetic corpus, which is also successfully transmitted through the album’s atypical, significantly stranger musical substratum. In its brighter moments, “Chronos” is a kinetic shapeshifter of boiling avant-garde progressive death metal and one of the easier tracks to get into, as is the even more straight-forward “Putrescent Mireborn”, heartily reminding me of Blood Incantation in its delivery (not the only moment in the album that I made such a parallel). Bass lines are marvelously audible and the drumming is excellent, handled by new member C.I. (of Occultarum, and as of 2026 playing for Putridity too).

What reminds of a more demented Autopsy line at the slow-paced starting melodies of “Oblivionauts” soon develops into a roller coaster of contorted riffing that makes no concessions to conventional song structure. The dissolution of epic proportions that takes place in the 10-minute closer “Entheogenic Ritual” features the band at its fullest, squeezing the logical terminus of everything the record was building toward. Fine classic death metal, non-idiomatic expression, and a dreamlike ride into a cerebral atmosphere that batters the gates of psychedelic death metal. Or, whatever this is!

I feel like Devoid of Thought often attend to deliberate inaccessibility and will likely frustrate listeners seeking handholds, but will also reward most richly the suspension of that expectation. Often genuinely difficult, but more often genuinely interesting, the album’s viscerally satisfying approach slides all around checkpoints but still manages to impress. The band appears idealistic towards experimentation, actively pushes around to make more space within death metal, and in my opinion, has all the confidence and vision needed in its quiver. Just shy of an outright masterpiece.

Release: April 24th, 2026 | Unorthodox Emanations
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Devangelic - Xul (2023) Review

There is overpopulation in every extreme metal subgenre today, which makes it an even bigger relief to find a solid band among the tons of new music one can go through during each year. Such quality band is Devangelic from Rome, Italy, who have started their activities in 2012 and have offered a handful of highly enjoyable records in the brutal death metal territory, as it was executed by its founders 25 years ago. The band’s debut Resurrection Denied in 2014 had a strong blasphemous character, but since then they have switched to a more occult lyrical theme around Sumerian legends and mythology, which continues on the latest album, Xul. 

Devangelic draw arrows from the same quiver like they have done so far and they aim well, as this new work thrives upon compact heaviness and intimidating brutality. It is fairly technical in terms of musicianship, throwing multiple either perplexed, or straightforward groovy riffs, the solos are frequent and the tempos change often, making Xul complicated enough to show the merit of the band, but pleasing to follow without your head exploding. 

The production is less crystal clear than what it was on the previous record Ersetu in 2020 and this time, the band aims to feel a bit less modern than before, giving out a strong Disgorge worship here, adding enough samples and extra elements that would bring Nile in mind, or at least a brutal death metal version of them. I like this sound transition a lot, because it grants Xul a very potent presence, which is supported by the furious material it contains and presents an album almost of a different time, solid through and through, and amazingly barbarous. 

Vocals are almost solely limited to deep growling, with a few high pitched screams here and there, and sometimes it’s possible to follow the lyrics, but they perfectly fit the music on Xul altogether. Another excellent aspect is the drum work, which keeps up to whatever the guitars throw wonderfully, it maintains a healthy amount of blast beats and is varied enough throughout the record without showing off, but more like serving the composition itself. 

There is an abundance of parts at frenetic speed and some slower, almost breakdown-like intersections, while Devangelic often employ unusual time signatures as is characteristic in brutal death metal, all executed accurately. Xul reaches the higher steps of the ladder for this year’s competition in the genre, and is to me, their most complete work to date.

Out on April 7th, 2023 | Willowtip Records

DAMAGE: 4/5 [Excellent]

Darvaza - Ascending Into Perdition (2022) Review

Band: Darvaza

Country: Italy / Norway

Album: Ascending Into Perdition

Label: Terratur Possessions

Website: Facebook

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This release has been highly anticipated. I have waited and hanged on for a full length release from this project for half a decade now, especially after getting more and more into their first three EPs. And the fact that they made such a mark with them from the very beginning shows what kind of band we are talking about, one that had laid the groundwork for a debut way after it was established in the scene, creating this feeling of desire to the fans, including me. Every time I went back to The Silver Chalice or The Downward Descent, I would think "but really, where is the full length from these guys?" and keep waiting. 

And by guys, I don't really mean your common black metal musicians. For people unaware of Darvaza, this band is a duo consisting of these two individuals: vocalist Wraath, who has been an active member of Celestial Bloodshed during their time of prime, as well as singing for One Tail, One Head and has also played - among others - in Mare, Fides Inversa and Behexen. The instruments are handled from Omega, one of the most infamous drummers of the last twenty years, who started playing in Handful of Hate back in the late 90's, and since has been drumming for Acherontas, Frostmoon Eclipse, also Fides Inversa, he was involved in Macabre Omen's debut The Ancient Returns in 2005, he has played in Moloch for several years and in Chaos Invocation / Blut Aus Nord for a couple of albums, not to mention that he was part of the supergroup Martröð (a project that will have you shiver when you see its line up, even though the resulting EP may not have lived up to its expectations).

And now, that the Italian and Norwegian counterparts of Darvaza have been explained, there's no question the two members have been rather busy but still maintained activity with this project, which could explain the absence of more material until now, yet I don't think they would rather feel the need to rush things for any external reason. Nevertheless, I have always yearned for an actual full release under this name and it has finally taken form in this 43 minute opus, named Ascending Into Perdition. And thankfully, it continues the habits of the previous smaller releases very closely: worn out black / gray art, simplistic design, and admirable music. Much like before, Darvaza goes hard with dry and as organic as possible sound, like an unfiltered spirit straight from the cask in the cellar.

Ascending Into Perdition has something I am always after in black metal, and it makes everything shine brighter right off the bat: sincerity. Listening to the album, you probably won't find unbelievably heavy, technical or new parts, the guitar lines are plain direct and quite melodic, as it is mostly focused on a lot of middle-paced playing, and when it gets faster it is not out of heaviness but to reinforce the black curtain the band lays with their material. In this way, they don't need to be too loud, every riff is wonderful, the drumming is excellent and the bass also has its moments, the raspy vocals undergo a lot of variety and the compositions as a whole are well thought and well executed. Darvaza don't want to impress anyone because they don't need this kind of validation, and Ascending Into Perdition is an ultimate, pure example of this forbearance for pretentiousness.

Such intentions are manifested in the whole of the record, as for instance in "The Spear and the Tumult". Opening with a fast paced but moderate and repetitive section, the atmosphere sets as Darvaza plays on with simple in design but highly efficient guitar lines and excellent vocal work, which makes the 8 minutes of duration of this track feel like nothing. Equally prominent is "Mouth of the Dragon" for the same reasons, as more and more guitar textures unfold and the album fully sets in, consisting only of this kind of indirectly dominant content. The lyrics are mostly understandable and, heavily into the occult, darkness and satanism, are just a pleasure to listen to coming from an honest source like Darvaza. Interesting lines are featured in "This Hungry Triumphant Darkness", where the band picks up an otherwise played war metal line before entering a more rock-ish part in the middle of the song, which combines some of the heavier moments of the album and some of the mildest, at the same time.

The ending part of Ascending Into Perdition is the real highlight of the release. "The Second Woe" starts off with slow drums and introduces its assertive semi-DSBM guitar melodies as well as harsh vocals immediately, with a chilling turn towards the middle and closure of the track. In an album full of high quality pieces, that track stood out for me for all the reasons I like Darvaza and their composing stance. An equally amazing orchestral introduction opens the final tune "Silence In Heaven", which is the longest number in Ascending Into Perdition and a bliss to listen to from start to finish, as it features all the band's elements at full force. In many ways, this record is more forceful than many extreme metal releases out there that rely purely on playing in the most frenzied manner possible, as if the listener will get spooked by the noise. Here is a truly powerful release.

After 2018, any time was a good time for a Darvaza full length album. With Ascending Into Perdition, they leave me satisfied with some of their most complete material to date and finally a discrete point where you can refer to when listening to them, it only took four years as it seems but I will be listening to the record repeatedly for a long time now, just because of how easy it makes it for you. There is no unnecessary complication in this release, while it still doesn't compromise for a second and it's not here to bullshit you with useless adornments. Straight to the point, Darvaza confirm their quality and ensure that our waiting was not for nothing.

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Release date: February 4th, 2022

Tracklist:

1. Mother of Harlots 

2. The Spear and the Tumult

3. Mouth of the Dragon

4. This Hungry Triumphant Darkness

5. The Second Woe

6. Silence in Heaven

Listen:

Bandcamp | TIDAL

Necromass - Calix. Utero. Babalon (2013) Review

Necromass “Calix. Utero. Babalon”

Summer 2013, Funeral Industries

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The Italian horde is back with a vengeance, as they have been silent for the last fifteen years or so. They have their own reputation in the underground extreme metal scene, since they are considered one of the cult bands of the middle nineties in black metal. Time worked in their favor this time, since the new album has finally some taste. I had to go through the limb blender and the celestial testacles to reach into this gem.

First of all, there is an immense improvement in the production, and it finally helps their musical ideas to unfold. There is a balance between the sound of each instrument and it creates a pleasant, clear and enjoyable result. Or maybe i feel this way because the music is solid, but i don't think anyone can argue that this sounds better than their early stuff. I know there a lot of fans/worshippers of their early sound, however, this is a really good effort to be considered inferior to the rest of their discography. In fact, it is exactly the other way around to me.

There are many interesting ideas in the album, nicely melded together, creating something that i happily recongize as innovation. Its not pure straightforward black metal, it does not have a repetitive pace, it changes moods and melodies again and again in each song, without making the difference too obvious so that it would ruin it. The occult feeling is maintained more with the two interludes they have in between the full compositions, that consist of demonic speaches/vocals and weird samples. The guitar work and the vocals mostly create the atmosphere of the album, which is more melodic and less ponderous, with epic elements as well.

If i was to point some standout tracks, these would be "Scarlet Void of Lust" and "Dawn of the Silver Star", but the introduction and outro do add the cherry to the top. I can't hide my admirarion for the cover art as well, which reminds of a painting of a different era. It is a work by Franz von Stuck named “Tilla Durieux as Circe”, created back in 1913. I would buy this if i found it somewhere and so should you,  they deserve the support of the scene.

DAMAGE: 7.5/10