India seems to be becoming rather a metal hotbed, pumping out a variety of bands with varying influences and a completely different approach than their western comrades. Devoid, here presenting their debut album, have thrown a truly staggering range of influences into A God’s Lie, making for a technical, muscular form of Death/Thrash with style and skill. From the genuinely spooky introduction A Silent Death until the last few notes of the violent ending track, the band are clearly playing their hearts out, and any fan of extreme metal will appreciate the album as well as recognise familiar moments, paid homage to rather than mimicked. The Cannibal Corpse-esque opening to Possessed will be pretty clear to all listeners, yet the ensuing tech-thrash flows perfectly making it more than a detached tribute. Devoid Of Emotions has an intriguingly old-school Melodeath feel, storming along like early Dark Tranquillity before the muscular Thrash takes control, and Hate Cult has an enjoyable stomping sound like old The Haunted.

If anything surprises you most on first listens, it’s the skill of the players, the band having only been formed in 2005 but clearly practising a great deal since A God’s Lie is their only release. Drummer Shubham Kumar especially is a revelation, a rolling whirlwind of styles that backs the talented guitarists up perfectly. You can hear the latters’ skills put to the test on the rifftastic Black Fortress, an exercise in Thrash Metal that will stun those previously put off by the New American Wave of Exodus Rip-Offs. I couldn’t find fault with the album, really – if pushed to choose a weakest track, I’d pick New World Order, where the schizophrenic samples are given just a little too much attention, but not at the cost of ruining the song, which has a great bit of jazzy bass during one section. Otherwise, all is great, and I was even reminded of post-Christian Tech-Thrashers Believer when the title track came around, a similar chunky riffing style in the first part leading into a nicely subtle ethnic melody before crashing back into heaviness.

That was the only moment on the album I could hear which betrays the band’s non-western origins; although some more would have given Devoid a bit more of an identity, you have to respect their decision not to. Given that even closing ‘bonus’ track Beersong is a ridiculously enjoyable thrashterpiece rather than the joke many bands would have made it, it’s hard not to feel impressed by A God’s Lie. This is an enjoyable first salvo from Devoid, more than worth tracking down and a harbinger of even better things to come, I predict – recommended for any Thrasher looking for someone outside the norm, yet welded to the tradition.