Deicide - In the Minds of Evil
After the last half-dozen let’s say less-than-stellar albums, I was about ready to give up on Deicide. It seems insane to type that now that I’ve heard In the Minds of Evil, but the band was already going downhill before the Hoffman brothers left, nearly a decade ago, and not even the legendary Jack Owen (ex-Cannibal Corpse) could get things back on track. Glen Benton and company seemed lost, adrift. I can only assume that Kevin Quirion (Order of Ennead, Shadow Society, ex-Council of the Fallen) finally joining as the official second guitarist, and helping with the songwriting for this new LP, is what reignited the black flame. Imagine the best parts of the first four Deicide records (which obviously does not include 1993’s demo compilation Amon: Feasting the Beast). The intensity of Legion, the catchiest bits of Once Upon the Cross and Serpents of the Light, the Thrashy supremacy of the self-titled debut. It’s all here, wrapped in an utterly flawless production, along with Benton’s best vocal performance ever. He sounds furiously reenergized, with an impeccable balance between rawness and understandability. And when he screams “Suuuuuf - feeeeer - riiiiing” about half-way through “Kill the Light of Christ,” you will feel his pain. The drumming, the riffs, even the guitar solos - all masterfully constructed and executed beyond words to describe. The first time I listened to this, the opening sample (“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”) immediately caught my attention because I’m a big Batman fan (apparently not the only one, although perhaps Benton identifies more with the Joker), and then the first song, the title track, started and I sat here, awestruck for 37 minutes, pausing only to think “holy hell, Deicide is back!” before hitting “play” again to scream along this time while violently torturing my neck. Six hundred three-score and six listens later and it just keeps getting better. Perhaps it’s a ballsy proclamation with a month to go in 2013, but In the Minds of Evil is easily the Death Metal album of the year (with all respect to Brutality for having the EP of the year), and a stunning example of musical perfection. Open the vaults!
(1) Comment(s)
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Jon Konrath said:
37 minutes - did they release this as a double LP?
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