Glen Benton has been quite a busy Satanist over the past few years. He took the death metal world by surprise with 2006’s The Stench of Redemption, which was an unusually fresh album for band that hadn’t made a strong record since the early 90s. His work with the much more epic Vital Remains made for a great death metal experience in Icons of Evil last year, which is arguably that band’s finest work. Now that 2008 has been here for a few months, his main band is a three piece (Ralph Santonella contributed some of the leads on this album) and for whatever reason, Till Death do us Part is simply not as good as The Stench of Redemption or Icons of Evil.

The repetitive, chromatic axe-grinding of Jack Owen, the muffled drum sound, and Benton’s sing-along style of death belches remind me a lot of Scars of the Crucifix. After comparing the two for a week and a half, Till Death do us Part seems to lack some of the aggression and catchiness found on that album; the same components that were nearly perfected on The Stench of Redemption. Steve Asheim’s drums are muddy compared to the clear mix they had on Stench, and leaves a hole that Benton’s bass can’t fill by itself. Other than that, everything sounds more or less similar to how it was in ’06.

The Beginning of the End starts things off with a slow, atonal dirge that lasts for more than three and a half minutes. I’m not sure why such a seasoned, straightforward death metal band felt the need to start off with a directionless intro track that does more harm than good. In any case, it’s ominous, but not in a good way. The title track follows it, and is the first real song. Jack Owen’s alterations between low and high-end tremolo gives the song a blackened feel, while Benton’s vocals sound as deep and quasi-intelligible as ever. The solo that shows up later in the song is pretty good, but seems less inspired than the ungodly scales Santonella led us through last time around. Hate of All Hatreds is one of the better tracks on the album, and contains a catchy vocal patter in the chorus, even though Benton’s vocals tend to sound the same in the verse section of every song.

Much like male nipples, the songs in the middle section of the song are vestiges; they aren't necessarily bad, they just don’t really do anything. The next song that remotely stands out is Severed Ties, and that’s only because of the bouncy riff and vocal pattern the band utilizes throughout the song. It was funny at first, but now it’s just tiresome. Strangely enough, it is followed by Not as Long as We Both Shall Live, which takes the award for having the best song title and best headbanging groove. The second solo here is short-lived but shines in all its finger tapping glory.

Horror in the Halls of Stone is the last thing on here that deserves positive mention. The lurching tempo and droning riff approaches doom death territory and sees the band taking a break from the world of blastbeats that they are so comfortable with. It’s over six minutes long, but is quite different from any of the other tracks that preceded it, so your attention will be captured if you have managed to stick around long enough to hear it. The same cannot be said for The End of the Beginning, a very short outro track packed with jarring chords, whammy bar….”solos”, and the constant blasting of Asheim’s sticks and feet. Fortunately, it doesn’t live for more than two minutes.

The insidious melodies found on their previous work have now been replaced with uninspired riffs that get plain boring in some of the songs. Occasionally, they manage to pull out an interesting song section there, or a cool riff here, but it’s not consistent enough to keep the interest of the average death metal fan. This isn’t an abomination unto evil, like In Torment in Hell and Insineratehymn were, but it’s far from competing with Legion or The Stench of Redemption, which still stands as the band’s best work to date. The two-sentence review on the Omega Order’s website says it all: “Deicide’s 9th studio album. You know what you’re getting...”