Devian is a band formed by two somewhat famous people, namely Legion and Emil Dragutinovic, of former Marduk fame. Now, don’t tap out just yet, if you’re like me and don’t at all appreciate black metal and Marduk. Devian is quite different from Marduk. The whole corpsepaint schtick is over, thank god… Or, well, mmh. Scratch that. The band has tagged their music as ‘raving metal’. Of course no one knows what that is, but on this here debut album ‘Ninewinged Serpent’, I heard Swedish death metal with a bit of thrash. And, might I add, very well done too.

Already from the first spin, ‘Ninewinged Serpent’ sounds right. Everything is good. The vocals sound great and vary from grunts to somewhat black metal like screams (without it sticking out like sore thumb). The production is exactly as it needs to be: somewhat polished, yet still quite gritty.

The riffs are very good and quite numerous and varied. And lastly, the drums use lots of double-kick without becoming excessive. In short: this album is exactly as it needs to be. It is very good, with no real weak points.
Still though, it must be said that lyrically, the title-track is quite crappy. Instrumentally everything is ‘tits’ as Cartman would put it, but really ‘I want what’s inside you to die’ and ‘There’s nothing for you here’, are sentences that sound a bit silly. Like it is some kind of overly clear stab at a previous girlfriend who cheated on him and now he doesn’t like her anymore.

That lyrical miss aside, anyone who likes his or her death metal Swedish will love this album. ‘Ninewinged Serpent’ is just a very good record and has nearly no flaws.
Dammit! I’ve run out of things to say… Well then: enjoy.