Finnish death metal unit, Devenial Verdict, celebrate their twentieth anniversary this year. It’s an achievement that most bands wish they could emulate. Musical tastes change in the band, life’s exigencies come calling, the musicians realise that extreme metal will never pay the bills. Hats off to the Finnish stalwarts for reaching this milestone with relationships intact. To commemorate their vicennial, they’ve provided us with a new EP of four songs plus a re-recording of the five tracks from 2016’s Soulthirst EP. It’s not an album, but there are nine cuts, and the new record stetches to thirty-nine minutes.
The violent jolt of opener, ‘Rituals of Ignorance’, comes packaged in a crisp guitar tone with kick drums that sound like they might move beyond shaking the floor to leaving craters in it. Listen how they alternate between pounding and half-timing the riffs like Carcass with a digital production. Most death metal these days is tedious and happy to exist in a comfortable status quo – this is not one of those cases. Pinch harmonics fly around the mix like darts, grunted vocals sizzle with malevolence, bass shapes move between the riffs. ‘Swarms of the Mindless’ will remind you why mid-90s Morbid Angel are still an exciting listen in 2026. Devenial Verdict refuse to let you settle into a paralysis of boredom. The crunch of the guitar is the greatest strength of this music.
You might even feel your picking hand grasping an imaginary plectrum for the heavy grooves of this record. ‘Elysium’ is what Phil Anselmo’s Scour supergroup would sound like if they dropped the black metal in favour of death metal. The guitarist’s hand seems plastered to the bridge of his instrument in permanent palm-muted mode. When was the last time you listened to an album from this saturated genre with such relish? Devenial Verdict remember that death metal used to be menacing enough to cause a moral panic before it turned into a self-indulgent pursuit of technical musicianship. Instead, ‘The Unborn God’ could take its place on stage with any metallic hardcore band. You’ll find your head leaning forward and your shoulders tensing as if you’re waiting to emerge with an upper cut punch.
The five re-recorded tracks from 2016’s Soulthirst EP confirm this group prize riffs over rituals. English group, Celestial Sanctuary, write death metal from the same perspective. ‘Thrones’ is confident enough to let the drums and thudding bass carry some of the verse parts as Riku Saressalo extracts the words from his guts like a person in the throes of terminal stomach cancer. ‘Fall of Faith’ resists the temptation to sanitise everything at the mixing desk. There’s nothing over-produced here that’d be impossible to play live. If anything, the brief passage of melodic guitar intervals in this composition might even remind you of Deafheaven.
The only thing missing here is originality, which is quite surprising considering the band identify with avant-garde metal. You’ll find no radical experimentation on this unique EP, but you can still enjoy the music as you would not do with a Portal or Ulcerate record. The vertiginous blast of closing effort, ‘Despoiler’, will leave you wondering how you can find your balance long after it finishes. Here, Riku Saressalo double-tracks his vocals to produce an added bloodlust, and it works. He sounds like a ravenous cannibal ready to ambush a young virgin. Admittedly, six minutes of this would be monotonous if not for the eerie phrasing of the guitar solo and lingering whammy bar action.
Retaining the listener’s interest is the best death metal can hope for these days, and Devenial Verdict are good at doing just that.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 01/05/2026
Record Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Standout tracks: Rituals of Ignorance; Elysium
Suggested Further Listening: Morbid Angel – Domination (1995), Blood Red Throne – Imperial Congregation (2021), Celestial Sanctuary – Insatiable Thirst for Torment (2023)