Most of United States death metal fans thoroughly agree that Florida housed the rise of these bands, the iconic career of Death (from founding member Chuck Schuldiner, deceased in 2001) as well as Morbid Angel and Obituary, just to name few. However this isn’t an article about the genre of death metal, that’s for another time, rather it’s to understanding the foundation of Deicide’s style which is ever present on their 12th-album. First, 12-years in the scene is an incredible run, and lasting thanks to the fans, even with the constant problem of maintaining a constant core in the band, namely numerous guitarists rotating in and out of the band dating back for over 17-years. “Overtures Of Blasphemy” strives in the same direction as previous albums and maintains solid distribution with Century Media Records, that achieved the release on September 14th, 2018 with artwork by Zbigniew Bielak, which is very good.
However, still at the forefront of the band is none other than Glen Benton, the man that carved a inverted cross on his forehead, his lyrics obsessed with the hypocrisy of the religions, values, focuses on Satan and evil conjuring all while presenting that image as a reality of himself. The style of guttural vocals, complete growls and snarls, aided by extreme drums and chaotic guitars have continued to supply their fan base with everything they desire, while opposition to them sways like a windstorm with various degrees of likes and hates of their albums, one thing remains true, this band just doesn’t care what the critics think.
The opening track, ‘One With Satan’ starts with intense drumming and takes about 39-seconds to shake off a slightly slow start, and it’s clear from there on that Deicide returns to preaching intolerance; however by the second track “Crawled From The Shadows”, shows that there’s significant improvement with technical aspects appearing at 1:52 mark, face it death metal must advance past the standard growls simplistic chords all of carries forth in delivering intensity. “Compliments of Christ” feels as if they hone a bit Obituary into the sound, nothing wrong showing some variation especially the passage lyrics at 1:30, refreshing once more for both the new and long-time faithful armies. There’s a great death-thrash track found here called “Excommunicated” think of it as if Slayer suddenly started playing death metal, yeah no one likely survives the mosh-pit, that carnage transferred perfect on the song. I truly didn’t think there was a song that was misplaced or not up to full blast, everything was engaging, the drumming keeps pounding away and guaranteed to make sure your passion for solid death meets theirs.
Track Listing:
One With Satan
Crawled From The Shadows
Seal The Tomb Below
Compliments Of Christ
All That Is Evil
Excommunicated
Anointed In Blood
Crucified Soul Of Salvation
Defying The Sacred
Consumed By Hatred
Flesh, Power, Dominion
Destined To Blasphemy
Band Members:
Glen Benton – Bass & vocals
Steve Asheim – Drums
Kevin Quirion – Guitars
Mark English – Guitars
I do like how they incorporated more thrashing sounds (which might displease fans of their earlier works) into the death metal sound, layering complex shredding always a positive maneuver, you can’t remain in one mode, rather explore use it with your old school death metal vocals.
Baron’s Rating: 4.0/5.0
https://www.amazon.com/Overtures-Blasphemy-Deicide/dp/B07F4DNZ74/
Band’s Links:
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialDeicide/
https://soundcloud.com/deicideofficial
https://twitter.com/deicideband
Label’s Links:
https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia
https://www.instagram.com/centurymedia/
https://soundcloud.com/centurymedia
https://twitter.com/centurymedia
https://www.reverbnation.com/label/centurymediarecords