Review: Terravoid – The Death Engine

Style: Avant-garde metal, progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Arcturus, Voivod, Thy Catafalque
Country: Sweden
Release date: 5 September 2025

Here’s a legend about a legendary album. Talking Heads’ magnum opus, Remain in Light, closed with an uncharacteristically slow and brooding track called “The Overload”—in strong contrast to the funky, energetic style that otherwise characterized the album. The press reported that frontman David Byrne wrote the track in an attempt to mimic the style of their momentum-gathering contemporaries, Joy Division. But here’s the catch: Byrne had allegedly never heard Joy Division. The song was said to reflect what Byrne imagined the band sounded like simply from reading reviews of their music. 

This tale is probably apocryphal, and “The Overload” doesn’t sound all that much like Joy Division in any case, but it’s the first thing I thought of when listening to Terravoid’s debut LP, The Death Engine. Why? Because the album sounds as though Terravoid did the same thing, but with the cosmic, darkly theatrical style of Arcturus. Seriously, its general aura somehow manages to nail how I’d describe La Masquerade Infernale and The Sham Mirrors while not sounding like either. And unfortunately, in this hypothetical, it seems as if the band got totally lost, decided to fill all remaining space with nothing but chromatics and off-the-shelf metal riffs, and called it a day. The result is a mostly grating combination of circussy avant-garde, progressive metal, and a touch of thrash. The Death Engine has no muffler, and you can certainly hear it run.

Taking a quick step back, Terravoid describe their brand of progressive metal as one for fans of Nevermore, Strapping Young Lad, Voivod, and John Carpenter, the budget-squeezing filmmaker and composer famed for movies like Halloween turned The Thing. I couldn’t tell you where the band pulled the former two acts from, but influence from the latter two can be heard among the Arcturus–ish sonic foundation. The Death Engine is full of cartoon-like synths and other haphazardly programmed elements sitting somewhere between spooky and spacey, and vocals that are categorizable as clean but best described as monotonous shouts. Meanwhile, winding riffs lean heavily into chromatics, breaking free occasionally to offer a more comprehensible albeit clichéd metal or thrash passage. 

Sometimes, this all comes together in an oddly charming way. The questionable vocals play well into the overtly theatrical “Charades,” which builds around a hypnotizing melody while the song’s notable drum performance changes up the rhythm enough to keep things interesting. Indeed, the drums stand out across the album. The straightforward bridge and guitar solo in “This is Not Yours to Embrace” also lands well after launching out of the fraught, noisy section preceding it. Similar can be said about the solos in “The Most of Your Concerns” and “Placebo Redemption.” As far as musicianship goes, The Death Engine is competently done. 

However, even after several listens, if you were to drop the needle almost anywhere on the record, I would have no idea which song is playing. Every single track spends most of its time repeating a slight variation of the same, abrasive, chromatic-filled riff behind the same, abrasive, flat vocals. The texture and mood hardly change, and the dynamic range is severely lacking. The sparse atmospheric passages (like those in “Obsolete Conformity” and “The Death Engine III”), guitar solos, and stock metal riffage aren’t exactly inventive, yet I desperately latch onto them like a hole-ridden raft in a raging sea. Simply put, The Death Engine is a rough listen—and not in the interesting, dense, provocative way avant-garde can offer at its best. The grating repetition and tone are simply too much to bear. 

To end on a positive note, not all is lost for Terravoid. The fact that something about The Death Engine immediately evoked thoughts of two classic Arcturus albums, even if bastardized, hints that there’s some potential for the band to hone their sound, improve their songwriting and programming, and deliver a compelling, atmospheric avant-garde album. I’ll be keeping a curious ear out for their next release. But until then, it’s safe to say The Death Engine won’t be powering The Progressive Subway.

Recommended tracks: Charades, Placebo Redemption
You may also like: Grey Aura, Anarchÿ, Frore 5 Four, Dreamslain
Final verdict: 3/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Metal-Archives

Label: Liminal Spaces Distribution

Terravoid is:
– Oliver Palmquist (vocals, programming)
With guests:
– Mike Wead (guitars)
– Emil P.W.S. Holmgren (drums)