Style: Progressive death metal, death metal, thrash metal (mixed vocals, mostly harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Blood Incantation, Voivod, Revocation
Country: Italy
Release date: 24 April 2026

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Imagine drifting across the vacuum of space in a campy, geometric spacecraft towards the edge of the observable universe with a single question to answer: what lies beyond reality?¹ Your solar schooner hums past Zeta Minor² and at last encounters the “void”. There are no walls to be seen and no lights to guide you home. The closer your vessel creeps towards oblivion, the less alone you feel. If your cabin crew happens to be Devoid of Thought, then they might theorize the “panspermic biodome”³—removed from the confines of space-time—awaits.

Devoid of Thought dream of a sonic world inspired by chaotic entropy and brimming with dissonant harmonies and wonky riffing. The self-titled Devoid of Thought follows five years of touring alongside Artificial Brain, opening for Beherit, and appearing at a few notable festivals like Brutal Assault. Presumably, exposure to a healthy amount of external influences would trigger a stylistic evolution from 2021’s Outer World Graves, which imagined a blackened, doomy cloud enshrouding Revocation’s The Outer Ones. Comparing album covers, Devoid of Thought appears to maintain the band’s fascination with stalking extraterrestrial organisms. In musical execution, Devoid of Thought loosen up and dive into the psychedelic mind of an omnipotent meticulously piecing together order. There is a noticeable deviation away from shreddy technical death metal, but that doesn’t mean this is a relaxing listen. It’s savage, booming, and sometimes quite trippy.⁴

Similar to contemporary releases by Ulcerate or Gorguts, Devoid of Thought succeeds in wrapping shrill leads and jagged tremolo guitars around a firm rhythmic body. The bass lines laid by Marek Sollami provide a steady stream of energy that often exudes neat creativity from chatty satellite beeps (“Panspermic Bio-dome”) to slinky alien bends (“Putrescent Mireborn”). Claudio Invidia’s frantic and controlled drum patterns bring a sense of order, leveraging well-placed fills and tempo changes to seamlessly lead transitions (“Chronos”). The guitars by Lorenzo Gagliardi and Andrea Collaro fluctuate between atonal and harmonic phrases that, while not uncommon in death metal, are elevated by the mix. Like an amorphous entity, reverbed guitars often feature in the foreground with occasional dive bombs and harmonics creeping around the edges. This wall of sound is imposing, staying true to Devoid of Thought’s implied theme of confronting timeless, promethean beings. Collaro’s vocals are standard fare for the genre, offering raspy tones that melt into the primordial stew and feel rather buried in the mix. The growls serve their purpose, and at times shine with bestial inflections; however, Collaro admirably goes the extra mile in adding timely clean vocals. The climax of “Oblivionauts” benefits massively from disembodied croons adding an explosive⁵ intensity to the quartet’s blistering race towards the finish line.

While Devoid of Thought excels at a technical level and nails the unnerving cosmic horror motif, pacing occasionally holds tracks back from full impact. The opening track “Panspermic Bio-dome” risks filling a 10-minute runtime with ample space: a long-winded monologue kicks-off the album, which later returns in the form of Collaro’s skeletal growling for several minutes beneath feedback and improv guitar leads. If I was face-to-face with an Azathoth bent on devouring my existence, I would have had ample time to shuffle away. In fairness, the band emerged from the extended monitor hang blistering and thrashy, but this borderline epic seemingly reached that length with only a few concrete ideas. “Entheogenic Ritual”—a member of the 10-minute club—comparatively uses slower passages to build tension that frequently pays off. This includes my favorite moment in the project where a frenzied tremolo-pinch harmonic euphoria stops and starts with each new drum or bass fill before erupting one last time. Colored by eerie and spiritual chord voicing, this is masterful death metal execution.

Technical prowess and ambition are a dime a dozen with over-the-top arpeggiating and slamming saving face for lack of a creative vision. Devoid of Thought avoids the bloat and keeps the short 30-minute intergalactic endeavor packed with room to breathe, even if on occasion you find yourself holding your breath a little too long. Admittedly, Devoid of Thought is a slow burner, revealing new layers of depth on each listen. The weight of the mix, the putrid vocal delivery—in a good way—and orderly disorder prove that the perpetual death and rebirth of life in the universe can be damn good fun.

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Recommended Tracks: “Putrescent Mireborn”, “Oblivionauts”, “Entheogenic Ritual”
You may also like: Oxygen Destroyer, Undeath, Into Coffin
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Avantgarde Music

Devoid of Thought is:
– Andrea Collaro (guitars, vocals)
– Lorenzo Gagliardi (guitars)
– Marek Sollami (bass)
– Claudio Invidia (drums)

1. Ignore the theory that “nothingness” and “absolute vacuums” are impossible at a quantum level where energy fields are active. ↩︎
2. If Doctor Who’s Planet of Evil serial is to be believed, Zeta Minor is the sole planet at the edge of the universe… until they retcon that. ↩︎
3. Considering “panspermia”, the theory that life exists throughout the universe, and “biodomes”, closed ecological life support systems, a “panspermic biodome” could reasonably be interpreted as an “ark ship” dispersing the seeds of life. Or, if we’re at the edge of the universe, the realization that the universe itself is an outerversal experiment. ↩︎
4. The kaleidoscopic chorus in “Chronos” might as well be to the lyrics “wobble, wobble”. ↩︎
5. There is quite literally some sort of explosion being sampled here. ↩︎