Deicide - To Hell With God
Century Media
Death Metal
10 songs (35:43)
Release year: 2011
Deicide, Century Media
Reviewed by Tony
Album of the month

Consistency or repetitiveness? This is the looming question with Death Metal. How much can possibly be spawned from the primordial ooze that is the genre of Death Metal? Death Metal has been more or less a similar hellion for the last decade. Of course, there are acts of sheer brilliance, such as Vital Remains, who manage to turn the brutal simplicity that is Death Metal into 10 minute opuses. Then there is Crimson, by Edge of Sanity. That album being another exception to the rule of relativity. There is also Chuck Schuldiner and Death, which of course is pure unadulterated genius.

But here we have Deicide, who more or less since their first self-titled masterpiece have been performing their brand of violent, heavy, no nonsense, blasphemous Death Metal. Deicide can have lyrics and song titles bordering on cheesy, and on occasion (such as Till Death Do Us Part, ) grow stale and lame. Fortunately for me, and many other Death Metal fans, the perpetual madness does not ever truly grow to be a source of boredom. There are moments in which we thrive in this atmosphere of violence and hatred. Often this becomes my choice music in the gym, until my Zune broke. Now I do curls and pull-ups to brutal artists such as Ke$ha, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber.

Without providing too much of a background to the album under review, it is important to note that most of us really loved The Stench of Redemption. Sure the songs were all somewhat the same in attitude and feel, but Santolla’s solos were inspired, the intensity drove us through the roof, and the sound quality was excellent. After a so-so release in 2008, Deicide are back with an album that could rival The Stench of Redemption as their finest release this millenium. Much like several other albums, here, Deicide open with their title track: To Hell With God. This song roars out of the gate without giving you a chance to catch your breath. Tremolo picked riffs lay over well wrought blast beats. When the infamous Glen Benton enters the picture, it becomes immediately noticeable that his lyrics are not as harsh as they were in his previous efforts. This actually works in his favor. I can compute mostly all of his lyrics, and while he does maintain his guttural brutality, his intelligible words make the blasphemy so much more worth the effort.

The chorus is extremely catchy. It will surely be a fan favorite at live shows in the future. The verses of the title track are basically typical Deicide fury, but the riffs over Steve Asheim’s textbook drumming during the pre- chorus and chorus make for an outstanding portion of the song. The leads are plenty, and it seems like Ralph Santolla is back on track with strong and gutsy solos. It also looks like Jack Owen has caught up to Santolla. The trade off solos are fantastic on this song.

While Steve Asheim is never talked about in drumming circles as a top notch drummer, he certainly serves his purpose. His drumming is perfect. His cymbal work has definitely improved, with his double bass and blast beats still bearing consistency after all these years. What stands out even amongst his well timed blast beats, speedy double bass, and of course his great sound on this album, is his cymbals and fills. They are more pronounced, with his fills standing out as a highlight to each transition.

The next standout song serves the purpose that Desecration provided on The Stench of Redemption. Conviction is a powerful, down-picked, strength derived song with a ton of double bass and good vox from Glen.

Even while most of the songs are what Deicide usually perform, the down picked portions of songs like Conviction and Angels of Hell. The simplicity of Deicide has always been their calling card, relying on fury and heaviness versus the progression of other bands. Yet, on To Hell With God, Deicide vary things enough through their drum work, riffs, song structures, and tonality to make for what I believe could be the rival to The Stench of Redemption for one of the most solid Death Metal releases of this early year. It is nice to see a major project punctuate the end of February. Album of the Month for me.

Killing Songs :
To Hell With God, Conviction, Angels of Hell, Servants of the Enemy
Tony quoted 90 / 100
Jake quoted 90 / 100
Other albums by Deicide that we have reviewed:
Deicide - Overtures of Blasphemy reviewed by Goat and quoted 70 / 100
Deicide - Legion reviewed by Tony and quoted 94 / 100
Deicide - Serpents Of The Light reviewed by Goat and quoted 81 / 100
Deicide - Deicide reviewed by Goat and quoted CLASSIC
Deicide - Till Death Do Us Part reviewed by Dylan and quoted 62 / 100
To see all 10 reviews click here
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