(written by Islander)

Devenial Verdict’s new record could be considered a retrospective on a 20-year career, but also a reimagining of their past. As a reflection of that concept, the name of the record (which is a combination of two EPs) is Old Blood – Fresh Wounds. To explain, here’s this Finnish band’s statement about the record, which is now set for release by Transcending Obscurity on May 1st:

“This release celebrates the 20th anniversary of Devenial Verdict. We wanted to update some of our older songs on this EP; these songs mark some of the most important musical moments of us as a band. We have the first instances of dissonance in our music and the seeds of our melancholic and atmospheric leanings; we have brutal passages and rare instances of melody. It was really eye opening to realise that all the influences were there all along! Some of these songs have never been properly released and exist only as live videos captured at our shows.

“We wanted to add the Soulthirst EP to this release since 2026 marks the 10 year anniversary for that release. Soulthirst functions as the bridge between all of our older material and our current sound, which we fully unleashed on Ash Blind in 2022.”

What we have for you today is the premiere of the new album’s opening song, “Rituals of Ignorance“. According to a note at Metal-Archives, it was originally part of a four-song demo recorded in 2010 but never officially released. Continue reading »

From from 2009 through 2016 the Finnish band Devenial Verdict released a pair of demos and a pair of EPs, and now, six years later, their debut album is on the horizon. Entitled Ash Blind and adorned with cover art by the great Mariusz Lewandowski, it will be released later this year by Transcending Obscurity Records.

Time brings change, and thus Ash Blind represents alterations in Devenial Verdict‘s sound, revealing more prominent dissonant and atmospheric elements in the music. The band show themselves capable of creating vast sonic vistas that are as entrancing as they are unnerving. But while Devenial Verdict have clearly spread their creative wings in expansive fashion from where they began, the songs also make for potent adrenaline fuel through bursts of obliterating hostility and grooves that hit hard enough to give your spine and skull a terrific jolting.

All these facets of their music (and more) come through in the album’s riveting title track that we’re bringing you today through an official video Continue reading »