To Hell with God

Back to the original-current lineup and this time signed with a new record label, Deicide released a seemingly shorter album but at least the songs aren't below 3 minutes, but that doesn't really mean anything anyways. The next two records won't have songs above 4 minutes and some will have below 3 minutes. The opening title track glimpses the mix of the album and how the music would sound. The bass is thankfully audible, but not by much, the guitar riffs sound a lot different than earlier records, and I believe Steve was paddling more on the double bass(?).

As for the title track itself, it's badly catchy. The riffage is quite annoying, the drums are heavily focused on the double bass, and Glen isn't impressing with his vocals on this one. The bass is great... for what it's worth. Another misleading track that I just found out: Save Your. Save your what? I understand the lyrics' interpretation, but it's better to give a complete title rather than leave it for interpretation. Nevertheless, I didn't like how speedy it sounded in general. The blast beats sounded, well, blasting and brutal, but that's pretty much for this song. Witness of Death sounds like a Slayer song. I think the drumming resembled that (excluding the blast beats), suggesting no originality. At least the guitar solo was good but that doesn't cover for the entire song, now does it? Hang in Agony Until You're Dead has catchy guitar riffs and neat blast beats, but it resembles a lot of the early 00 records and later falls because of the generic chorus. By exemplifying these four tracks, the rest of the album's tracks are very forgettable and miserably fail at sounding catchy. Their very own good bits like blast beats or guitar solos don't complement the songs enough or cover for their mistakes.

The only standout track by far is the last track, How Can You Call Yourself a God. I don't see ANY potential or room for improvement but this track. It sounds like something from Till Death Do Us Part, and perhaps should've been on that album, leaving this album with nine mediocre tracks that only have bits of goodness. I also feel like due to the new label contract with Century Media Records this is a factor to how bad this album turned out, unlike the predecessor two that were contracted with Earache Records and both are the modern best that Deicide produced.

When I thought Insineratehymn & in Torment in Hell were the two worst Deicide records, To Hell with God has brought back that degradation for the third time. Funny enough, it actually makes Insineratehymn better. This clearly implies the record is a slap to the face, when they released two of their best modern records from 2006 and 2008, respectively. And not trying to take a jab at the band very harshly, but this record is as disappointing as the aforementioned early 00s records. First you put out a very excellent, rightfully catchy, and explosively melodic guitars, drums, and vocals in The Stench of Redemption, and later add in some doom metal influence in Till Death Do Us Part, how do you drag yourselves down to this... it's like with considerably their best album, Serpents of the Light, only to release two extremely hateful albums right after - literally tied to each other.

Clearly I'm not the biggest fan of this band, and surely not a lot of people are as well (or at least don't show it like me). Over the years, due to the repetitiveness of the music and lack of change, the repetitive lyrical themes and hating God and Jesus and fuck knows whoever else, it's tiring to hear and the music doesn't help either. A change can always help (as I already mentioned above), but that satisfaction can easily be turned off when the band immediately flushes the good stuff down the toilet a few records later. We've seen it with Once Upon the Cross, the early 00s records, and now with To Hell with God. I won't be surprised if this fluctuates later, from making good albums and then immediately dropping down, rising up almost significantly and/or slightly dropping down again.

We are all well aware of Glen Benton and his forehead. The dude really, really hates jesus, and this hatred has been consistently vitriolic since the formation of Amon in the late '80s. So, here we have the infamous Deicide’s tenth full-length, To Hell With God. Clearly, the song remains the same. My point is, so fucking what? Do people honestly expect Glen Benton to write anything other than blasphemy? When I want to listen to Deicide, it’s generally because I’m pissed off and I want to hear some hateful, hostile, and aggressive fucking metal. Yes, Deicide have become a workman-like metal band, releasing an album every couple of years and touring small clubs and bars. Glen Benton and Steve Asheim have made Deicide into a career. I think it’s safe to say that many of the readers and contributors here have heavy metal aspirations of some form or another. I know I wouldn’t mind having Glen Benton’s job…

Alright, smoldering inverted crosses aside, let’s talk about something other than the lyrical ideology of this band. Let’s discuss the driving force behind Deicide, the guy that composes the arrangements, writes a good deal of the guitar riffs, and masterfully blasts his way through album after album, Steve Asheim. In 2006, a rejuvenated Deicide treated us to one of the most utterly brutal albums to be released heretofore in the form of The Stench of Redemption. The two subsequent releases see to it that the sheer thrashing power and speed of the music are maintained. To Hell With God blasts your ass from the get go starting with the blinding speed metal assault of the title track. Fuck, man, Asheim gets straight to the point with bpms surely approaching 240 and beyond. Locked in to a blistering 32nd note template, this metal madman behind the drums is an A+ student of the Lombardo school of death metal. Asheim is relentless from start to finish whether he is blasting, double bassing, thrashing the polka or “Slayer” beat, or flying across his rack toms with expert fills.

The intensity of the music is on par with Stench with a slightly dryer production. Benton spews forth mouthfuls of hatred and the standard issue blasphemy over the musicians’ blasting and tremolo-ing. The modern Deicide-machine is fast and efficient, fueled by the mighty chops of Steve Asheim, and I daresay even a bit lighthearted, doing their jobs with care and enjoyment. The departure of the Hoffmans was absolutely necessary for this efficiency to come to the fore, as Deicide’s dismal 2000-2004 period showed blatant stagnancy within the band. Enter the shred of Santolla/Owen and we get a refreshed and enthusiastic death metal super-group.

“Save Your” demonstrates Asheim’s fondness of the triplet groove, a style that Deicide have aptly utilized since their self-titled debut way back in 1990. The ¾ meter offers many possibilities in thrash/death/black ranging from full throttle blasting to furious feet under half time hats and snare. Asheim puts on a clinic here with all of these techniques. “Conviction” takes a slight breather, slowing the tempo just a hair within said triplet pattern, offering up a bit of the swagger of old. “Angels of Hell” and “Hang in Agony Until You’re Dead” are thrashing beasties, with the latter offering a particularly crunchy breakdown. Asheims’s blast beat technique is, in my opinion, the heaviest way to go about it. He uses a single stroke on the snare, generally at around 220 bpm or faster, and goes double time with the feet. This technique is an old-school one-foot blast made twice as heavy with the double kicks, not a bomb- or gravity-blast (which Asheim himself will tell you is "a bit of a cheat.") He is athletic and ambidextrous, blasting away with synched up hands whether he’s playing a ride or high hat pattern. Steve’s set up is not necessarily minimalist, but utilitarian, with an emphasis on china cymbals (he uses five chinas placed strategically just a stick away from any cymbal or rack tom.) No flashy bells, chimes, or splashes are necessary when you are focused on being as heavy as possible. His snare is crisp and cutting, and for live performance his kicks are the only drums that are triggered.

To Hell With God is brutal death metal. No frills, just extreme metal played at extreme speeds. Glen Benton does what he does, his voice filled with guttural hate, and the lead guitar work of Ralph Santolla is as pristine as the Catholic faith of which he is a member. The soloing on closing track “How Can You Call Yourself a God” is particularly glorious. I saw Deicide on tour for this album, the performance was tight and professional, with Asheim ripping through the set with ease and the Santolla and Owen combo slaying every lead, but Glen’s bass was inaudible. His vocals were spot on though and it was certainly a life check point to have the pleasure of seeing these death metal titans perform live. In summation, if you want to enjoy this record, try to forget about Benton’s persona for a second and experience the brutality of extreme metal master Steve Asheim.

Deicide doesn't necessarily need an introduction, but I'll cover briefly on what their former name was and what happened to their lineup. They were originally formed as Amon before Glen created the name Deicide, which means to kill a God or Deity. When the Hoffman brothers left the band, that's when I lost sole interest with them. After playing around with other band members, they came and went. Their current lineup features Glen Benton on vocals, Ralph Santolla on guitars, Jack Owen on rhythm guitar and Steve Asheim on drums.

The music on this album isn't entirely innovative or captivating. It features riffs that are mainly tremolo picked guitar bits that don't really stick to you. They really have gotten worse and worse over the years. Nothing can top their 1992 release entitled "Legion." The compositions here are mediocre and they don't really offer much besides Glen's boring vocals and music that's neither intriguing to listen to or give quarter to just isn't there. The distorted guitars lag in ingenuity and integrity which was what the band used to have to offer on their former releases.

Songs just start out with heavy guitars, but there isn't anything interesting about them. The drums fit well with the music, though the music itself just doesn't feel like the old Deicide I used to love and praise because of it's ingenuity. They used to intrigue me much more so then than they do now. This album is about 35 minutes long with 11 tracks that don't last too long. Ralph's guitar leads are the highlight of this release and that's about it. Tempos very and the intensity is high. This however isn't persuasive enough to cause you to be enthused with it's originality. There is no originality to it.

Glen's nonsensical lyrics that deal with anti-Christianity and Satanism which are mindless. I think that it's a better thing that you can't really understand what he's saying when he's grunting the vocal outputs. The chorus parts are easier to make out of, but on a whole, you need that lyric sheet to see what he is saying. He really doesn't think much about his lyrical concepts nor does he persuade the listener to like his voice. It's solely boring and monotonous, which isn't the case on the first 2 Deicide releases.

Don't do what I did and invest in this album because there really isn't anything interesting about it. The songwriting lags way behind, the vocals are such to where they can put you to sleep and the guitar riffs are way below their potential. None of the songs are very likeable or original sounding. Deicide should just call it quits because each album they put out gets worse and worse. It's a shame what a talented band they used to be turned into one hell of a boredom to listen to. The album title should read "To Hell With Deicide."

I’ve always had a bit of an iffy relationship with Deicide…I get what they’re going for, and have found a few of their albums to be pretty tasty in the death metal department (“The Stench of Redemption” being a prime example), but the severity of their overall product doesn’t always produce ear candy on my end (“In Torment in Hell” being a prime example). Maybe it’s due to desperation on Glen Benton’s part, what with trying to maintain an original feel on very limiting lyrical themes, I couldn’t tell you, but the group plow on through material and tours in such a reckless way that I’m starting to wonder if the end may be nigh for these Floridian troublemakers. But I can’t predict the future, so again, I couldn’t tell you.

Things have started to taper off once “’Til Death Do Us Part” came rolling down and disappointed a good portion of us, so let’s see if they’ve picked up the pieces and started thing anew once again…

From the get-go, it’s pretty obvious to this listener that Deicide are still a bit of a one-trick pony in more ways than one, and in utter frankness, “To Hell With God” isn’t really able to placate my already present belief that they don’t always live up to their legendary status. In fact, things seem to be entering a sort of blandness that you’d think would be beneath Mr. Benton, and that sensation is present throughout the entire disc outside of a few moments and tracks that occasionally break through the monotony. Maybe they’re running out of steam? Or ideas? Either way you slice it, Deicide’s latest just doesn’t really cut the mustard in terms of making death metal interesting again and instead bludgeons the listener over the head with monstrous blast beats, palm-muted, single note riffs and weakening growls/shrieks/what have you that come off as brutal and heavy, but not as dark and foreboding as they should be. The ability to be evil and wicked is there, deep down, no matter how hard it is to keep the “Satan Rules, God Drools” lyrical themes fresh and interesting, and with a little more oomph and emphasis on catering to the musical dark side versus being a jackhammer to the face, “To Hell With God” could’ve been more. Much more. But it’s not, and as it stands the enjoyment factor present for this disc is rather short and shallow. I suppose if any good factors are present, outside of some excellent melodic lead breaks and Mr. Asheim’s pleasantly nasty drumming, it’s that they thankfully haven’t conformed with the new Century Media -core approach and continue to try and stick to their guns as best they can, no matter how dull and trying-to-hard such an approach comes off as. Guess it all kinda comes and goes track by track, where the faster, thrash-based niceties of “Witness of Death” and “Angels of Hell” are crushed under the 2D, vanilla likes of “Save Your” and “Conviction”.

In the end, I wasn’t too thrilled with “To Hell With God”, and I may not come back to this for my ‘cide fix as long as “The Stench of Redemption” and “Once Upon the Cross” continue to exist. Maybe this will appeal to the long-time fans or anyone who wants some good, modern death metal, but I think I’ll pass this up and find me an Orange Julius. I’m a bit thirsty.

It isn’t that I hate Christianity. It’s that I have no use for it. I can’t understand why people need an absurd mythological framework in order to know how to lead their lives and be good human beings. If Christianity never existed, or was suddenly erased from our collective consciousness, society wouldn’t collapse into bedlam. The morals that guide us have nothing whatsoever to do with the fictitious “man upstairs”, never have, never will.

It is precisely because I find Christianity so ridiculous that I get a kick out of some good ol’ fashioned Christ-bashing. For me, listening to Floridian death metal stalwarts Deicide’s tenth album, To Hell with God, is no different than watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail or reading Richard Dawkins’ God Delusion. Railing against and pointing out the absurdities of Christianity takes on many forms. It just so happens that Deicide’s approach to doing so involves distorted guitars, blastbleats, and lyrics that the average Christian would refer to as “blasphemous”.

What better way to attack something as willfully over-the-top and ludicrous as Christianity than with death metal, a genre of music that is equally over-the-top? It’s certainly nothing new, but it makes perfect sense and Deicide have been doing it a hell of a lot longer than most. It’s also what makes Deicide so much fun to listen to, and To Hell with God is certainly above all a fun listen, packed as it is with blisteringly-played, short and to-the-point death metal. Glen Benton and Co. have always had a knack for concise and catchy songwriting, something that’s generally lost on their death metal brethren. While other bands drag on for eight minutes at a time with not a hook in sight, Deicide brings the catchy refrains in almost every song, rarely breaching the four minute mark. It is a formula that works exceptionally well for them. Throughout the course of this blog, I have continually stressed the importance of writing actual songs and To Hell with God is a prime example of how to execute memorable songs within an extreme music framework.

Of course, some will argue that Deicide have been doing the exact same thing since 1990′s Deicide, but so what? ”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” as they say, and besides, does anyone actually buy a Deicide album looking for anything even remotely resembling progression? Hell no, you buy a Deicide album to get a fix of highly headbang-able, highly satanic meat ‘n’ potatoes skull-crushing death metal, and on this front To Hell with God more than delivers. If you want progression, go buy a Cynic record, you big sissy.

It doesn’t hurt that To Hell with God is probably the best-sounding album of Deicide’s career, especially after the near-unlistenable murkiness of ‘Til Death Do Us Part. The band sounds positively huge and clear as a bell (witch), thanks to producer Mark Lewis, who has apparently twiddled the knobs for Devildriver (barf) and The Black Dahlia Murder (meh). Ralph Santolla’s ultra-fluid leads cut through the mix like a hot knife through butter, giving the band an almost power metal-like shred factor. Benton’s blast-furnace roar sounds as ferocious as ever, and it doesn’t sound like there is as much vocal multi-tracking going on as in the past, which actually makes him sound that much more evil. Drummer Steve Asheim and guitarist Jack Owen are the primary songwriters here and they make the most of their considerable skills, the drums and rhythm guitars locking in together perfectly throughout To Hell with God for maximum devastation.

Deicide has been around for over twenty years now. To Hell with God (and the equally excellent The Stench of Redemption from 2006) proves that they’re still just as capable of producing ass-kicking, Crucifix-crushing death metal as they were in 1989, in spite of numerous ups and downs throughout the years. At this point it might just be part of their schtick, but I give Deicide credit for continuing to bluntly tell the good lord where to stick it in an age when limp-wristed Christian right bands are parading around calling themselves death metal on bullshit labels like Solid State. Do me a favor fellas, take your fucking girl’s jeans and swoopy haircuts back to Sunday school and leave the death metal to Deicide. Go now, your lord is dead.

I really like the other Deicide albums I’ve heard, among them Legion, Serpents of the Light and the mammoth Stench of Redemption, but I heard one song off of their last album Til Death Do Us Part and decided that it wouldn’t be worth my time. Come this year’s To Hell with God, I decided to check out how these old death metal veterans were doing and…well, I’m still not impressed.

I mean, talk about a letdown. From the awesome cover art I was expecting a really great album, but this is just so lame. To start, what happened to the songwriting? On Stench, this band crafted epic maelstroms of death metal heaviness and thrash metal intensity, with a ton of killer leads to boot. It was a very dramatic album with a lot of punch and charisma to it through the Satanic screeching and bowel-rumblings. This album is just weak. The songs start and end in the same place, with little dynamic or power to any of it – just endless barrages of faceless riffs and even more unmemorable solos. Lame. The guitar tone is a twangy, rockish waste that doesn’t give the sound any power or vitality at all, and Glen Benton’s vocals alternate between monotonous roars and restrained yowling. Did someone just suck all the personality out of this band with a vacuum cleaner?

I wish I could say more about this, but really, what is there to say? To Hell with God is an album of three minute songs that can’t even sustain my attention for half of their durations. Nothing about this sounds genuine or interesting at all. It’s an album by a band struggling (and failing) to stay relevant, without actually having anything musically or lyrically to do so. A few good riffs pop up every now and then, but that’s just because any band that flings enough crap at the wall will logically get it right once or twice. There still aren’t any songs here worth your time. Skip this.

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

Deicide have not exactly been at the forefront of innovation. One would clearly assume that after being around for as long as they have, they would pretty much be out of ideas. Especially after Till Death Do Us Part was a let down, the expectancy levels would have dropped drastically. But one has to bear in mind that Deicide do boast of an all-star line up, and guitarists at the level of Jack Owen and Ralph Santolla are very, very few. The latter especially, after playing a brilliant role as lead guitarist in Obituary’s 2009 offering Darkest Day (where I would say Ralph is the only saving grace). But the four of them do not fail to deliver on To Hell With God, and despite the oddly cheesy title which suggest the aforementioned exhaustion of ideas, it is quite a benchmark of an album.

The album carries nothing that we haven’t seen before, the dual layered vocals, aggressive drumming with extensive use of blast beats, and melodic self indulgent guitar solos courtesy the mighty Ralph Santolla. So what does this album carry? A lot of brutality, taken up a few notches since the last album, a lot more blasphemy, and aggression that Steve Asheim had been building up for ages now (seemingly). The album kicks off with the title track and brings out all these elements in a neatly composed death metal phenomenon. And one can clearly not get enough of Ralph’s maddening wankery, perpetuating his individual style, much like James Murphy of the early nineties. The album, though not a punch in your guts at a stretch, comprises of a a lot of what I would call true Deicide material. Songs like To Hell With God, Empowered By Blasphemy, Angels of Hell and How Can You Call Yourself A God are bound to stay in your playlist for a while. Glen Benton, sounds angrier and more blasphemous in this, his vocals beautifully dual layered, produced to rip your religiosity to shreds. The one drawback though is the bass. Not well produced and appears very thin on the entire album, not heard at all in some parts. Angels of Hell clearly is my pick for the best track, Ralph’s epic solo making you orgasm with every note. The guy is simply too magnificent to be described in words.

Looking back, I would say this is no Stench Of Redemption, but bears a lot of its characteristics. A vast improvement from Till Death Do Us Part, certainly. Though some would wanna bring up comparisons with benchmark albums such as Legion and Serpents of the Light, I think the Deicide with Jack and Ralph is a completely different band from the Hoffman brothers’ Deicide. Of course, the great Glen Benton remains unscathed, despite being around for many years. These guys can definitely do a lot more, and I would really love to see another album on the lines of Stench. And regardless of the kind of Deicide fan you are, there is no way you will not enjoy the madness of his (un)holiness Ralph Santolla.

Deicide are back and not a moment too soon after the stinkfest that was Till Death Do Us Part, but are they truly back? It's hard to tell. Certainly, To Hell With God is a better album, but after 20 years of writing death metal, they seem to be out of ideas. It does have the standard Deicide sound, but in this case, that doesn't save this album from mediocrity. About halfway through the album, I realized I had heard these songs before. I had heard them earlier on the album. Every song has the same drumming, same lyrical patterns, same guitar work. The only thing missing was the bass. I couldn't hear it. If it was there, it was turned down so low it was basically absent.

Glen Benton's vocals are also lacking. In the past, he has used various styles to produce different sounds in their songs, lending some variation to the songs. He only uses his regular death growl on this album, contributing to the lamentable lack of imagination throughout the album.

The production is first rate. The album is very clean, almost too clean. Here's the thing though: do we really want Deicide's production to be completely clean? Part of what makes Legion such a classic album is the slightly dirty production. It doesn't sound clean. It sounds rough around the edges.

The album is short. Very short. Clocking at at about 35 minutes, it isn't their shortest album, but that might save this album from being bad. Any longer and it would have just gone completely downhill.

At first, the songs are okay, even good. The title track, which is also the first track, is the strongest on the album. After three or four tracks, the album starts to wear on and only the hardest core fans will listen to the whole thing. My first time though, I zoned out at about track number five. It became background music and I didn't even really hear it anymore.

Is this what Deicide have become? Background music? I certainly hope not.

Standout tracks: To Hell With God; Conviction

Written for http://thebearcavemetalblog.blogspot.com

I've never really followed Deicide with much devotion. I find their older material to be very good, but other than "Dead by Dawn" here, "Serpents of the Light" there, I've heard very few of their actual songs. Since they were close to releasing their new album To Hell With God, I decided I would wait until it was released and jump onto the bandwagon. This album displays Deicide having done the musical equivalent of jumping the shark five times in a row, plus a couple backflips for flair. The band has obviously been around too long to create any more genius ideas, and they have begun to smear their idea butter thin across a full-length's worth of material. As a result, it simply doesn't make the cut if you're looking for greatness.

The whole band seems totally infatuated with swinging beats on this album, as they take up at least three-fourths of the length of To Hell With God. (The other one-fourth is mostly straightforward blasting.) One song in, it's great; three songs in, it's tolerable; but after this point, the average listener will stop and think to themselves: "Wait a second! This band isn't trying to create a unified sound for their album! They're just lazily shoving the same rhythm into every single song!" It's like ordering a burger at McDonald's, and upon receiving the box it comes in the waitress says to you "Oh, by the way, we ran out of pickles, buns, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, cheese, sesame seeds, and onions. But your burger still a hamburger patty. Enjoy!" Well guess what, you fucks: I came into this restaurant expecting a burger with variety, and if you can't give me that then I'll take my money over to Burger King and buy food. Now replace "burger" with To Hell With God, "ingredients" with "shit I actually wanted on the Deicide album", "hamburger patty" with "a musical rhythm that would have been okay, but not all by itself", "Enjoy!" with "HAHA FUCK YOU LISTENER WE'RE TOO LAZY TO WRITE SONGS THAT AREN'T RHYTHMICALLY IDENTICAL", and "Burger King" to "some other death metal band", and you have summed up my feelings about the lack of variation in To Hell With God.

The guitar tone is quite adequate, and when Deicide is performing a tremolo on the first or second string it sounds beautifully ominous. Structurally, tremolos are the primary element one will find on this album, though the listener is periodically treated to - and even I was surprised by this - some deathcore-styled chord chuggings throughout "Save Your". I wish I could say more about the guitar riffs, but that's just it - it's all tremolos, and some are better than others ("Save Your", "Into the Darkness You Go", "Empowered by Blasphemy": yay; "Conviction", "Angels of Hell", "Servant of the Enemy": ew). This album also incorporates a few guitar solos - one every two songs or so. I never thought Deicide were good guitar solo writers, and this album confirms my beliefs - the solos fucking suck. It's not that they're totally worthless by themselves - they're just mediocre - but some dumbass decided it would be fun to play the solos in an entirely different key from the rhythm guitar. Well guess what, you idiots - when you play your solos in a different key, your lead and rhythm guitars need to create a HARMONY. But no - Deicide decided it would be fine to play the solos in whatever key the lead guitarist desired, with no attention paid towards whether it sounded nice at all.

Considering To Hell With God swings rhythmically with little to no exception, the drums are... playing in a swinging beat as well (shocker). As such, when they're not blast-beating like no tomorrow, they're playing in eighth triplets on the hi-hat. The sound of the drumkit itself is very typical - no old snares, no weird cymbals, no clicky bass pedal - it's not bad, but at the same time it takes away the possibility of a bit of personality for this album.

Glen Benton has probably changed the most out of all the members of Deicide. His growls are gone - they've been replaced with some sort of raspy shouts and yells. They are still very powerful, but they hardly fit Deicide's music at all; they feel like they should be vocals to some Scandinavian viking metal band. They're not deep at all, and for an iconic death metal band, that's suicide. The screams are still raspy and high, but whenever encountered they are layered behind Glen's yells, which defeats a bit of their purpose. Although Glen's vocals are interesting a few songs into the album, by the sixth song they become simply tolerable, if not very boring. And while I'm on the subject of the vocalist, I'll get to another part of this album I can't stand - the lyrics. With Glen's new-found yelling vocal style, Deicide's lyrics are more interpretable than ever. And now I can realize just how much these lyrics make me believe that Deicide is just a bunch of idiots. Every single song seems to be a look into the mind of a 6th-grade atheist who decided it would be mega-awesome if he showed the big-kid atheists his poetry about killing Jesus. And the sad thing is - it sounds quite serious. It may very well all be in jest, sure, but so are the lyrics of Cannibal Corpse, and they can write lyrics about their subject in a sufficiently convincing manner.

Though songs like "Save Your", "Empowered by Blasphemy", and "Witness of Death" save this album from being a total flunk, it's pretty mediocre. From what I've heard, it's a far cry from the genius works Deicide were making in the 90s. Deicide, I hope you read this, and I hope you read all the other mixed-to-negative reviews for To Hell With God. You've created enough albums that are heralded as legends - stop now before you pull an Unspoken King on your fans.

Some things never change: the title of Deicide's new album is "To Hell With God" (Martin Walkyier will not be relinquishing his 'king of the puns' crown anytime soon). It appears that their last album, "Till Death Do Us Part", which was about divorce, was just a fluke in terms of lyrical content. Actually, based on the lyrics I was able to discern, as a whole, this is slightly less focused on blatant “blasphemy” and anti-God content.

Apparently guitarist Ralph Santolla re-rejoined the band at some point, although I had no idea until I checked the info sheet and saw his name listed as a band member. And speaking of which, the info-sheet may have been the best part of reviewing this entire album. It describes the album as being a 'blasphemous hell ride' and says that "it's quite apparent that these satanic stalwarts will continue spreading their message of hate and evil among the masses.' C’mon now, does anyone really take these guys seriously these days?

Right off the bat, the guitar tone sounds a little bit off. It lacks the punch of certain previous releases, which takes away from the effectiveness of many of the riffs. The riffs themselves often are not memorable and even when they are, it is in an obnoxious 'stick-in-your-head' type of way, like on "Hang In Agony Until You’re Dead".

Drummer Steve Asheim plays really, really fast. For some people this is enough, but I felt like he really came out as a varied and technical drummer on "The Stench of Redemption", being able to play really quickly while making his playing memorable. Here, he just plays fast. With so many drummers out there being able to match this level of playing, quickness is not enough for me.

Glen Benton is Glen Benton. For those that love his vocals, congrats! He sounds exactly the same as pretty much every other album. He continually uses his deep-throated growls which are at times accented by a higher-pitched scream. There are far worse vocalists out there, but sometimes I think the music could benefit from someone with more range or someone who is more dynamic.

The saving grace of this album is Ralph Santolla. He plays most, if not all of the solos, which is great because Jack Owen is a pretty lousy lead guitarist. And Santolla's solos are all over the place. He never quite reaches the level of the ones he did in "Homage for Satan" or "Desecration", but his neoclassical melodicism is the perfect contrast to the death metal intensity of the rest of the album.

As for the songs themselves, for the most part they are not very memorable, and it is not just the riffs. Things actually start off pretty well with the title track and "Save Your", both are pretty intense and contain everything I expect from a modern Deicide song. What follows is a lot of bland and boring music, aside from Santolla's solos, and aside from the annoying riff in "Hang In Agony Until You’re Dead", nothing stuck out. The album closes on a high note with "How Can You Call Yourself A God", which contains solo after solo from Ralph Santolla.

With single-song downloading options like I-Tunes, there is no real reason to own "To Hell With God". While this is certainly an improvement over "Till Death Do Us Part", why waste 13 Dollars, Euros or whatever on a CD when you can download the three worthwhile songs for less than ¼ of the price? Perhaps part of the reason why the CD format is dying is because so many bands are putting albums out with only a few quality songs and lots of filler. Definitely pass on "To Hell With God", but do check out those several songs I mentioned.

(Originally published at www.metal-temple.com)

Deicide is most definitely one of my favorite death metal bands. Glen Benton is an incredible front man and behind him is an arsenal of metal gods. Deicide has always been one of the most Anti Christian bands on the face of the earth if not the most. Most albums are incredibly solid except for 2008's album Till Death Do Us Part. To Hell with God though, is a fantastic comeback album that shows that this band still has what it takes be to a leader in the death metal genre.

Every song on this album is for the most part pretty solid. The title track and How Can You Call Yourself a God would most likely be my favorites. Each song has very solid riffs and great musicianship as far as death metal goes. Benton's vocals have in a way changed in a tiny way. The Stench of Redemption was a deeper growl then the past two albums and the change isn't necessarily a bad thing. These vocals sound a bit more complex and they are easier to listen to for longer periods of time. If you have been a Deicide fan for a long period of time and respect what they do then you're going to love this album. It has everything that a Deicide fan enjoys, heavy riffs, dark lyrics, and complete brutality.

There are however though a couple problems. First the album is very predictable. Deicide has accomplished no new ground lyric wise so if you're looking for something different then you might as well just skip this album. Music wise it is very basic which you really can't just blame on them; it's the problem with all Death Metal. If you are into bands with more complexity like with Thrash Metal then this album really isn't going to impress you. What I really would like Deicide to try is change some lyrical content to mix things up a little bit. They remind me quite a bit of Cannibal Corpse. Both bands use the same lyrical content album after album and it would really be nice to see something new.

All things aside this is a very solid Deicide release. To Hell with God is the strongest release they have had since Legion or Once Upon the Cross. Content and music wise nothing has changed but Deicide still continues to be a very dominant force in the Death Metal genre. If you don't mind repetitive lyric content and music then you will definitely enjoy this release. Any Deicide fan will enjoy this record and it is definitely worth picking up in stores. I give props to Glen and the guys putting up another solid release.

Hmm, considering how bad I thought "Till Death Do Us Part" was, I have to say this was a big improvement, however, I dont think it can top off The Stench of Redemption. This album here, I can refer to as my second favorite Deicide album. This just never gets old compared to Till Death Do Us Part which to me gets old in about 15 minutes. This album now has the title track take over Homage for Satan as my favorite Deicide song, not as the heaviest, but definitely my favorite. But I've compared enough, the good part here is that with this record, Deicide did bring some new stuff to the table, just like on Till Death Do Us Part, but it failed, here, it was a success. The guitar tone was shifted from the previous album to here, but here it isn't really that annoying as it was on the last record. One other new thing I found different was the vocals, Benton probably from having two testicles on Till Death Do Us Part, to probably three testicles on this record, he sounded much more pissed off on this album, and that only makes me love it more. Another thing I found different, was that in general, Deicide has gotten faster and more melodic over the years, and here it tops off. Much more tremolo picking and blast beat drumming yet more guitar echoing bass lines. But allow me to jump into the details more.

A general overview I'd give to this record is, fairly high-pitched yet still heavy guitar parts, guitar echoing and barely audible bass lines, extremely angry but absolutely lovable vocals, blast beat drumming, and your typical religion bashing lyrics, with an overall evil, "dont fuck with me", and very heavy sound.

Okay, like I said before there were some elements from The Stench of Redemption and Till Death Do Us Part that were drifted over to here, some that annoy me, some that are just fine. There were also new elements put in here that I loved. For one as I've said, Benton I'm guessing probably grew another testicle judging by his voice on this record. On this record I just loved the vocals, it sounded like he really was pissed off, which is one thing that death metal is supposed to be about, anger. It seems they have tweaked their guitar tone a slight bit better from the last record, but it still doesn't beat the guitar tone on Stench of Redemption.

As far as everyone's performance on the album went, I have to start with the vocals. Do I need to mention it again, Glen is either an amazing voice actor and able to much more anger behind his vocals now or really was pissed off at something when he recorded his vocals. Considering how they even threw in a few cuss words in their lyrics along with Glen's red hot tempered growl is enough to probably scare someone moreso than every haunted house in the world could do combined. Another good part as far as the vocals go, it wasn't as much screaming oriented compared to the last two albums, that's definitely a step up, because even though I like screamed vocals, it can be easily overdone on a death metal album. Shifting over to the guitar parts, they were over all probably a 9/10 performance. I wouldn't change the guitar tone to exactly what they did on Stench of Redemption, but they could still make the distortion on the guitars heavier than they did here. I see Ralph and Jack have no signs of losing any of their glory as of yet. The solos could have gone a bit longer, but it still is satisfying and it isn't a huge deal. As far as the bass lines go, they are audible to the slightest, which is good, but as I said before, they pretty much just echo the rhythm guitarist 99% of the time. Again, I'm not asking for bass solos, on a death metal album, most definitely not, but what I am asking is that they make the bass go down a different path of notes compared to the guitars a few more times. The drumming wasn't really that special except for one thing, it was fast. Fast drums are something I do enjoy listening to and even if they aren't that fast, I dont ever expect them to stand out as much as on Metallica's "Sad but True", but their drummer did get a few mini little drum solos and they didn't throw him under the school bus to any extent.

As far as the best track of the album, that would likely go to the album's title track with, How Can Call Yourself a God, Save Your, Witness of Death, Into the Darkness You Go, and Servant of the Enemy all trailing not too far behind the title track. A definite positive is that I dont ever feel the need to want to skip down to my favorite tracks. The entire album was made up of 10 extremely enjoyable songs, though some are however, better than others. There was no bad song on here that should be considered a disgrace to the album. The song lengths were kept at a very good moderation and were although a bit short, it still isn't that big of a deal. Also, I have to compliment, very nice cover art.

As much praise as I offer for this record, I do have to say it wasn't exactly perfect. As I may have mentioned, I'm not a huge fan of "Death to Jesus" being brought up in every song. I'm not fond of any religion but it does get slightly disturbing and sometimes irritating after a while. And also, as I said before, bass lines echoing the rhythm guitar annoy the fuck out of me.

Overall, a definite buy, download, however you want to get it. It's well worth it.

Deicide rose to the front rows of the metal scene when Glenn Benton walked into the record label and slammed down their demo and said "Listen to this fucking thing, I don't give a fuck". They got the contract and they have been making music ever since. Glenn is also famous for branding an inverted crucifix in the center of his forehead. They are the one of the many drivers of the north american death metal scene, more specifically Florida death metal. They have had some good releases, but this is definitely not one of them.

Remember Slayer's "World Painted Blood" and how it was the same stuff they've ever done, but with worse lyrics, mediocre playing and stereotypical Slayer antics? Put Deicide into that equation. "To Hell With God" is Deicide's "World Painted Blood". It was so stereotypical it was painful. Not many people liked the last Deicide installment, "Till Death Do Us Part" for this reason. But unfortunately, not only is it stereotypical, it was just boring. And not only was it boring, but it was just regurgitated satanic propaganda nonesense. I have no problem with satanism, but I hate it when bands solely sing about the "Glory of their master, the morning star, satan". It's obnoxious.

"To Hell With God" starts out with a strange chordal structure, as if they are trying to show the metal community "Look how progressive we are!" but it was more annoying than progressive. It's almost like listening to nails on a chalkboard. The rest of the album follows the same suit that the rest of their albums did, but done with less emotion and seemed like they were regurgitating their last album all over this one.

The drums were actually the one part of the record that was enjoyable. In fact, if I could find just the drum tracks somewhere, I'd listen to solely that. They hit pretty much all the styles of drumming - all tempos, all rythems. It was the best part of the album. I can't say much for the other instruments, really. The bass was unheard of, so I can't even say a single thing about that instrument and the guitar was the same shit they have always played. In fact, it sounds like stuff that Cannibal Corpse would play (probably because their guitarist was once in Cannibal Corpse).

The one unique thing about this record was that the solos were pretty different from what they've ever played, and I actually liked some of them, but still, that's not saying much. The solos are mostly 15-30 seconds at tops, and the whole songs are 3-6 minutes, so you're taking an eighth of a song that sounds decent. I think that's about an "F" in school.

To be honest, I kind of figured this record wouldn't be that great. I just hoped it would. It was certainly better than "Till Death Do Us Part", but that's easily done. This record wasn't just boring and stereotypical, it was a last chance to change for Deicide, and unfortunately, they didn't.

Contrary to what is commonly the credo of mainstream culture, there is a point where shock value becomes redundant and bands that were once thought the epitome of culturally dangerous need to be judged on their musical merits. In keeping with this, it is important to note that Deicide tends to rate high amongst bands blacklisted as being “a threat to the children”, and have been decried by culture warriors the world over for more than 2 decades. Some might argue that those crazy Norsemen who took to church burning are the real outcasts, but this band tends to have much more name recognition amongst prohibitionist enthusiasts, though I’m sure Mayhem and Burzum might enjoy similar infamy should they become better known to these sorts. But for someone like me who just simply likes good metal, it is little more than poetic aesthetics, and ones that don’t really demand a look at the lyric sheet despite the words not always being clearly enunciated from Glen Benton’s throat.

As a band, Deicide has always struck me as fairly predictable, and pretty well locked into the Slayer to Cannibal Corpse paradigm, though sticking more closely to the orthodoxies of the former than that of the latter. “To Hell With God” is another exercise in revisiting this tried and true formula, reminding somewhat of “Once Upon The Cross” in it’s simplicity, but having a crisp modern production and a more refined guitar performance out of those players who are noted as not being the Hoffman brothers. There’s more blast beats, the riffs cross back and forth between wandering Teutonic thrash and Morbid Angel-like sludgy tremolo madness, and the lead work has a markedly mature and organized tendency to it, in spite of Ralph Santolla’s slight tendency towards self-indulgent shredding. This is a mean, lean, highly compacted machine of bruisers that is about as tight and together as they come, complete with one of the more minimalist and percussive vocal performances out of our favorite Big Foot eyewitness.

The greatest enemy that this album has, and one that kind of keeps it boxed in towards a solid yet somewhat anti-climactic nature, is how methodical it is. Each riff, each combination of deep and slightly higher pitched barks, every blast and breakdown comes in exactly where it’s expected, leaving very few wow moments. Within this somewhat overly limited collection of brutal possibilities lays a few really good songs that lend themselves more to individual obsession, the most obvious of which are “To Hell With God” and “How Can You Call Yourself A God” for a greater supply of twists and turns that tend to come with slightly longer songs. There’s a few intercessions into slower, sludgy sounding riff work before the high tempo pandemonium ensues, and some of the leads flirt with being melodic. “Hang In Agony Until You’re Dead” also has a couple of nice punchy yet dissonant grooves to change things up amidst a mess of shorter songs that fly at warp speed in a manner reminiscent of the unrelenting sameness of “Reign In Blood”.

At the end of the day, this is an album that warrants few complaints, but falls just a tiny bit short of a full blown love affair. It beats the hell out of their middle era nonsense, but that in itself isn’t a massive accomplishment. This is death metal by the numbers, putting the pedal to the metal, and frontloading the vehicle with the usual assortment of dissonant and chromatic goodness. Guitar solo enthusiasts will find a better version of what Cannibal Corpse attempts on every single album, something that actually might be close to as memorable as the brilliance normally heard out of Trey Azagthoth circa “Blessed Are The Sick” or even Santolla’s own work on “Individual Thought Patterns”. Unfortunately, the solos tend to upstage the rest of the songs, which normally shouldn’t be the case on an album like this. Nevertheless, a good pickup for fans of old guard death metal before the pig squeals and ham slamming.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on February 15, 2011.

Regardless of their importance during death metal's formative years, or Glen Benton's memorable controversies, I have never found Deicide to be among the better traditional death metal acts on the international stage. Albums like Legion and Once Upon the Cross had their moments, to be sure, but despite the band's irreverence and savagery, I've never found them quite menacing enough to impress my tastes. Brutal, blunt, and blasphemous indeed, but the actual music always seemed to lack some charisma, some tangible evil inherent in the compositions of a Leprosy, Consuming Impulse or Cause of Death.

That said, I was surprisingly happy with their 2006 album The Stench of Redemption, a fact I attribute to the 'changing of the guard', the addition of axe men Jack Owen (Cannibal Corpse) and Ralph Santolla (Obituary, Death) to the fold, replacing the Hoffmans. Till Death Do Us Part not so much, but To Hell With God, with all the implicit poignancy of the title's intent, is a fairly solid whooping with some impressive musicianship in both Asheim's nuclear powered delivery and the razing whirlwind of guitars. The classic Benton dual guttural/snarl vocals are lock step with the finer offerings of the past, and the production values here might be the paramount of the entire Deicide career: incredibly clear and distinct, though the bass is admittedly pretty thin in there (but fitting).

The first few numbers arrive in a blaze, led by the titular track's showy guitar work, which we were apparently not meant to survive, so much effort and stake is placed in it. It's one of the better tracks here, followed by the punishing precision pun of "Save Your", which is sadly void of any truly redeeming riffs despite the obvious effort. "Witness of Death" conjures a slower vortex of old school riffing, but not for long, as the pace returns to that of the prior tracks with forceful death/thrashing merit, a tactic used repeatedly here through "Conviction", "Angels of Hell", and "Into the Darkness You Go". There are a few traits later in the track list, like "Servant of the Enemy" with its great leads and the slapstick "How Can You Call Yourself a God", which has some of the better guitars hidden in its tightly woven walls of brutality.

It's very easily to be overwhelmed with how good the album sounds from a technical standpoint, and the clarity of its engineering propels the guitars with some of the most brutal blunt trauma the band has ever mustered. However, aside from the obvious talent Owen and Santolla possess in their leads and the precision of the rhythms, there are very few which linger long in the mind. This has ever been the bane of the Deicide album, that falling just short of memorable, but To Hell With God does well to at least merge the band's old school aesthetics with a modern level of extremity, much in the vein of The Stench of Redemption. The musicians are all in fine shape, including Benton, but whilst I enjoyed mashing my head to a pulp for an hour or so on the hard surface of my desk, there's just not much depth outside of the skill level and pristine production.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com