J-Man A Silent Death...

The Indian death/thrash scene is not one that is often given a whole lot of attention. Though the scene is nowhere near the level of quality and quantity coming from America or Europe, Devoid proves to us that Indian thrash metal cannot be ignored. Although Devoid's style of Slayer-esque thrash metal has been done before, A God's Lie is generally a highly enjoyable release that fans of extreme thrash metal won't want to miss.

Although this style of music is not the type of stuff that usually moves me, it's hard to deny the amount of quality and hard work put into this release. Every song has catchy hooks, memorable riffs, raw vocals, and just about everything else that makes a death/thrash album enjoyable. The raw, raspy vocal style of Arun Iyer isn't exactly my cup of tea either, but he does a great job and suits the music perfectly. The instrumental and compositional side of Devoid is really great - these guys know how to play, and they show us this in a classy, professional manner. The compositions, while not extremely varied, are all enjoyable and still easily distinguishable from each other.

The production is very unpolished and raw, which really suits the music like a glove. This is no over-produced or synthetic thrash metal - this is brutal and directly to the point, which is what thrash metal is basically all about.

Conclusion:

In the end, A God's Lie is a high-quality extreme thrash metal album that doesn't completely appeal to my own personal taste. Don't mistake my own enjoyment with quality, though - A God's Lie is a great brutal thrash album. As such, I will rate A God's Lie with 3 solid stars. If I were more of an extreme thrash fan, I'm sure I would've rated higher.

Time Signature New metal order...

Genre: death-thrash

"A God's Lie" is the debut album by Indian death-thrashers Devoid, one of the bands of the thriving Indian metal scene. With their high quality death-thrash, Devoid represent the more extreme parts of the Indian metal scene.

Their style of thrash metal spreads pretty well across the palette of thrash metal, using elements from a lot of different subgenres of thrash metal from old school in-your-face riffage over technical thrash metal to more modern melodic thrash metal and more brutal death thrash (and a couple of references to classic heavy metal) - in fact the only thrash metal subgenre that is not represented in Devoid's music on this release is groove thrash (well, there is actually a quite groovy section in "Possessed" and one in "Devoid of Emotions"). I really like how Devoid takes the listener on a journey through thrash metal.

I think that the production is very good: it's not too polished, but it's still crisp and well-defined, so you can hear what's going on musically.

The opening track "A Silent Death" is an atmospheric track, starting out with a dark atmospheric keyboards and an acoustic guitar before fading into a vague air siren after which the first song "Battle Cry" starts.

"Battle Cry" is mostly an all out old school high octane thrash metal tune, but with some more modern sounding parts, and a cool heavy breakdown just before the solo.

The next track "Possessed" is interesting, because it starts out a Suffocation-style brutal death metal song, complete with blastbeats and guitar harmonics to boot, but then morphs into an almost Anthrax-like mid-tempo old school thrash metal pattern and later melodeath-like riffage is included as well. This is a really well balanced brutal and aggressive track.

"Devoid of Emotions" is perhaps my favorite track off the album, because it contains some fast galloping riffage and also a Sepultura-like riff (from before they started playing tribal metal), and, as if that's not, there are also some melodeath parts nice breakdowns.

"Black Fortress" is more in the vein of melodic death metal, or perhaps the style of "Kreator", while "Hate Cult" and "New World Order" are two breakneck Slayer-like tracks, while the bonus track "Beersong" is very old school..

"A God's Lie" contains some really brilliant old school thrash metal riffage paired with some more technical death metal-like sections and a heavy mid-section the reminds me a bit of Pantera's more brutal stuff. This is a very good and varied thrash metal track.

I must say, I really like "A God's Lie" by Devoid. It's great thrash metal, and I really like how varied it is - as I said, it's a journey through thrash metal, with Devoid as the tourist guide who shows us all the great sights of thrash metal. I'm already looking forward to their next release.

This is quality death-thrash, and I'd recommend it to all fans of thrash metal. I think that a lot of fans of both melodic death metal and traditional death metal will like this album, too.

UMUR A God´s Lie is the debut full-length studio album by Indian death/ thrash metal act Devoid. The album was released by Demonstealer Records.

The music on the album is thrash metal with the occasional touch of melodeath. Slayer seems to be the main influence but early The Haunted and Dew-Scented and at times traditional US thrash metal act Exodus are also valid references. The music is well played, powerful and holds a lot of memorable hooks. Something that a lot of acts neglect to focus on when they write songs. The vocals are aggressive and gives the music the right angry twist. We´re not talking something terribly unique here but the quality level both when it comes to the musicianship and the compositions is high.

The production is pretty raw but still professional and suits the music well.

It´s interesting to see more and more metal acts come out of India. Who would have thought that just 10 years ago. I guess the fast growing middle class in that country are one of the main reasons for that development. Whatever reason a band like Devoid certainly puts India on the brutal thrash metal map and A God´s Lie is a quality thrash metal album fully deserving 3.5 stars. A more unique approach would have earned them 4 stars but I hear great promise here.