Deicide - To Hell with God
I or anyone I know haven’t really given a shit about Deicide in many years. Their last two albums for Roadrunner (Insineratehymn and In Torment in Hell) were the last time I was really feeling them, and just about anyone will tell you that the band phoned those albums in. They were leagues above the next three albums that would follow for Earache, however, when Glen and the boys stopped writing Death Metal songs and started playing inhumanly fast, unmemorable Satanic Tech/Grind. So, will a new record label mark yet another change? Yes and no. They’ve started writing actual songs with actual good riffs again, and the patented riff-following vocal patterns are back, but it might be too little too late. Lyrically I shouldn’t even have to explain what’s going on here. In fact, if I have to hear Benton bark “your god is dead” one more fucking time I’m going to become a Christian just to spite him! Musically, as I said, there is improvement. They’re back to aping Slayer riffs (“Conviction”), while “Witness of Death” and “Empowered by Blasphemy” stand out as the album’s highlights, short and fast songs with actual hooks. The solos are higher quality than I ever remember on a Deicide album (see “Witness of Death”), while closer “How Can You Call Yourself a God” begins with a very unique, dynamic intro piece. Those are the positives. The negatives being basically any song not listed above is pure filler, plus Glen Benton’s voice just isn’t what it was decades ago. Listen to his “tone” on “Into the Darkness You Go.” Is that not a dead horse being beaten by an even deader esophagus? Maybe I’m being too hard on them, but they spent the better part of the ’90s setting their own bar legendarily high. Maybe I’m not being hard enough. Listen to any Deicide output from 1990-1997 and then pop this one in. Night and day. In summary, much better than their last three records, but most things are.
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