Deicide

By Júlio Valada on Feb 9, 2011 in Cd Review | 0 comments

Album: To Hell With God
Label: Century Media
Tracks: 10
Release Date: February 21st
Lenght: 35′ 43″

Riff Score: 8.5/10

Death Metal…Satan…Glen Benton. For over 20 years these words have been synonym with one name, Deicide. One the earlier and more brutal bands in the scene, either because of their relentless music or their horrific imagery and lyrics, Deicide always punished believers and non-believers alike with their extreme music. But now on the 21st century do they keep on doing the satanic punishment they’ve been excelling at for so long?

The album opens up with the title track, bringing a barrage of blast beats immediately followed by the guitars and Glen’s vocals. Now the first thing you’ll notice is that Glen sounds pissed off. I mean really pissed off, to the point where I can state that his vocals are in league with some of Deicide’s better works. The song features some changes in pace, slowing down a bit here, going into overdrive speed there, and always giving you the feeling that you’re being utterly punished for something you shouldn’t have done. This track is punishing despite not being the most brutal track here, and it certainly gives you a preview of what’s ahead.

The second track “Save Your” takes the brutality to a whole new level with an infuriated and exemplar execution by Steve Asheim on the drum department. This track has a Legion-like feel, something that is heard again on tracks like “Angels Of Hell” and “Hang In Agony Until You’re Dead”, with their complex song structures and abrupt tempo changes. Some parts are played at hyper-speed, especially on “Angels Of Hell”, with the tempo of the songs feeling like a roller coaster through the pits of hell!

With each track that passes you feel more and more convinced that Deicide put some serious work on this. In fact there are hardly any weak tracks in this record, as the album is really consistent and extremely well executed. There are some catchy chorus on some songs, and by catchy I mean those that if you scream near a church it will start burning spontaneously. Just hear the chorus on “Conviction” with its brutal rhythm section, the riot screaming on “Servant Of The Enemy” spitting forth “DIE! DIE! DIE!” and the unrelenting chorus of the closer “How Can You Call Yourself A God”, which sounds as if Glen is defying God himself for a one-on-one fight. Definitely one of the best tracks, but it could be even better if it didn’t suffer from the “Santola Syndrome”.

I care to explain. Ralph Santola is an amazing guitarist, a brilliant shredder, a guy that can play anything he wants. And for the most of the album he delivers with great prowess. But at some points he just indulges too much in his neo-classical shredding. Not that I don’t like it, the guy absolutely rules at that, but I feel like it detracts a bit from the evil sound that the album tries to achieve. The album does a good job of capturing that evil atmosphere but you can’t deny that tracks like “Save Your”, “Servant Of The Enemy”, but especially the closer, suffer a bit from his overuse of melody.

Talking about low points on the album, this brings me to the plodding “Into The Darkness You Go”, with its mostly mid-paced rhythm that feels a bit detached from the rest of the brutality in the album. Sure you have songs with slower more mid-paced sections, and two good examples would the aforementioned “Angels Of Hell” and “Hang In Agony Until You’re Dead”, more particularly the second one. But as I said above these are also the tracks that have a Legion-like feel, due to Deicide’s ability to mix their slower moments with the hyperspeed blasting they’re renowned for. So these tracks work very well, as “Into The Darkness You Go” just drags along. Another complaint I have is with the production job which gives this album a thinner sound than it should have. The instruments are all heard very clearly, with the bass standing out a lot of times, something I can’t complain about. But the production sounds too clear at times with barely any distortion on the guitars. It could use some fuzziness or even some reverb to create a more haunting and scarier atmosphere, instead of going for a crystal clear sound.

Alas it doesn’t and that stands out as the main fault on this album, together with the weaker “Into The Darkness You Go”. Apart from that it’s as a very solid and consistent album, with quality songs overall and barely any stand out tracks. There’s a chorus here and there that will infect your soul for the following days and “Conviction” does seem like the best track here. But for the rest of it, it’s just a good old brutal ride over the belly of the demon that is Deicide, with some slower moments that barely let you regain your breath before you’re pummelled again into the depths of Hell! A recommended album for anyone who likes Deicide or death metal, definitely a good surprise in this late year of 2011, and surely a good way to start the year knocking down some churches!

By: Júlio Valada