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Rating: I discovered Deicide and started forming an idea of what the most extreme aspects of heavy metal were around 1995, thanks to the typical schoolmate who was a fan of the genre and would lend me his "cassette" tapes with compilations of his favorite bands... I vaguely suspected that there might exist a more direct and violent fringe of a style that I had so far associated with the well-known Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Megadeth, but I hadn't yet experienced firsthand the brutality and imprisoned power. Of those compilations, which entertained my "aggressive" moments for several years with the antics of various bands like Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Death, MZ412, and so on, Deicide were certainly the ones that struck me the most, they hit me in the stomach until they came out of my ass.
I will remember titles and songs like "Carnage In The Temple Of The Damned" and "Satan Spawn The Caco-Daemon" for my entire life, almost fondly. After all, I believe it's important to go through a "metal phase" at some point in one's life, and I had mine as well: I haven't yet understood why my preference has always leaned toward the more blatantly hard and almost anti-melodic genres, perhaps because in their context I saw them as flying kicks to the face of the melodramatic antics of Dream Theater or the abhorrent epic metal. Speaking of Deicide, then. A well-known, very well-known band, there is no need to add or repeat what has already been said on this site by other users who undoubtedly "feel" death metal much more than I do, just a mere external admirer. It was only right, however, to talk about a work that is certainly not among the most memorable in the career of the controversial Florida band, especially since it came after three albums that had redefined the characteristics of an entire musical genre and changed the appearance of the metal imagery, perhaps taking it to its extreme "aesthetic" and conceptual consequences, never entirely mitigated despite the series of controversies that invaded the media right mid-'90s, when realities like Deicide definitively emerged from the cult environment to reach the school desks of high school students, including mine.
So "Serpents Of The Light" from 1997 is the first extreme metal album I listened to from start to finish and probably for this reason I didn't become a follower of the genre myself... sometimes the imprinting is important, especially during adolescence. Listening to it again today, after becoming acquainted with works of much different quality within the same genre (and within Deicide's own career), one can also understand the lack of evolution of this musical genre, which stalled on itself because it was unable to be exposed to a broadening of views, a continuation of a coherent discourse: because the discourse has always been the same. Interesting, but after a while, monotonous. Yet, yet, in the explicit ugliness of Glen Benton's growl and in the gruesomeness of tracks like the title track or the fantastic "Bastard Of Christ" (one of the band's signature songs), one can glimpse a vital force that goes beyond the terrifying sense of death and destruction that is mistakenly attributed to projects like this. In reality, the barrage of punches in the face, in the gut, and the kicks to the balls that these songs unleash on the listener (even if, in this case, often predictably and manneristically) hide a very personal point of view not at all close to the satanic antics that one assumes are the only message of the lyrics that accompany them.
Deicide's point of view is clarified in a nearly explicit manner, almost leaving no room for further clarifications: the prophets lie, don't waste your life at the mercy of a sacrifice that will only lead you to be a servant once again, rebel against your condition as a man enslaved by the machine. The concepts, rendered obviously much less "politically," are thrown in the ears of the listener amidst riffs grinding death and suffering, but it is a suffering of those who trust in their own anger to overturn a coin that has never fallen on their side. I could therefore assert that in Deicide's songs ("Blame To God" is an example), the rebellion against God is nothing more than a gigantic metaphor for life, an exaggeration of social revenge placed on a biblical scale, where slogans prevail, almost as if each track, instead of a march but of a ride into hell, were a sort of manifesto.
In their own way, Deicide are "working class heroes," and Glen Benton is the representation, taken to extreme (sometimes caricatured) consequences, of contemporary man's frustration and sense of repression... the reflection against religion is just one aspect of a whole series of considerations that could be made but that for reasons of time must be left in suspense. And we are still in the same (mined) territory as people like Nietzsche and Martin Luther. Before placing the ellipsis, I have to ask you a question: in art (and therefore in music), is it possible to hate God but simultaneously want to screw Him?… … … … … And is it better to reign in hell or be a slave in heaven?
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Serpents of the Light (03:03)
Free of their god, intelligence won
Go with your instinct to live as you want
No longer begging for mercy from thieves
They can't come near you, through them you can see
Keep to the outside the teachings of christ
Denounce the father, undo his disguise
DIE!!!!!!!!!!!! SERPENTS OF THE LIGHT
You are at one, the serpent now gone
Harness the power to refuse the son
Under the bible inherit deceit
Above it enlighten to what you can be
Savor the pleasure once known in your life
Heaven's compassion you know is a lie
SERPENTS OF THE LIGHT
Serpents of the light, return to where you hide
GIVE US PEACE OF MIND!!
Serpents of the light, revolting parasite
THORNS IN PARADISE!!
Serpents of the light, expelled from human life
FREE OF JESUS CHRIST!!
02 Bastard of Christ (02:48)
Bastard of the cross relentlessly
Strike fear preaching of his coming here
Scriptures, twisted words to provocate
Rapture from the lord your god so great
BASTARDS OF CHRIST - DIE!!!!
He fucked himself to save you - put to death, masochist
For this his word berate truth - agonized, prophecized
Revive the book of fiction - blasphemy, gluttony, to deceive you and me
In battled disposition - hang the bitch on the cross
Entitle his convictions - blasphemous, lunatic
your heart is full of hatred - BASTARDS DIE,
FUCK YOUR CHRIST, WILL SURVIVE,
KILL YOURSELF........DIE!!!!!!!!!!
Bastard, for your god you compromise
Do without, search the truth you'll never find
Scriptures offer little to relate
Laughter from the lord into your face
BASTARDS OF CHRIST - DIE!!!!
You think your god will save who - I will see, just believe
You fool, not true, no thank you - enemy of the cross
His word installs deception - pray to god, not for me,
for yourself, soon you'll see
You'll die for your religion - holy shit, pacifist
Untrue with choices given - nothing won, you are dead
Describe the holy vision - BLACKING OUT, FINAL BREATH,
MEET WITH DEATH,
NOTHINGNESS, DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
04 This Is Hell We're In (02:51)
Racing with death, life in a mess
Time growing shorter with every regret
Efforts subceeding, I'm losing restrain
Insincere promise I've broken again
Nothing can touch me for once I am dead
Exclude the body, the spirit is left
I have no problem in coping with life
It is this world that condemns me to die
THIS IS HELL WE'RE IN
Enduring in pain
IN THIS HELL WE'RE IN
I will not remain
THIS IS HELL WE'RE IN
Forbidden to want
FROM THIS HELL WE'RE IN
I wish to move on
Wrapped in self doubt enmeshed in the brain
Darkest depression succumbing again
Waiting the hour, the string snaps inside
Length of a second to take my own life
So it is promised I do not believe
Anything better than what I have seen
Out of this body, I wait for this day
In this hell were in, entangled in pain
Balance upset into leaning on death
Simplified option to life's little test
Constantly guarding against its attack
Why were we put here to feel its effect
Violent pressure has tired my tries
It is my wish that it's soon that I die
Hanging by threads to the realms of the sane
It is this world that has made me this way
05 I Am No One (03:38)
I'm your forsaken, the fallen from grace
Horror of evil, created mistake
Ruthless and wicked, I feast with the damned
I am the cyst on your lord's holy lamb
Fuck your religion with blood on its hands
Forgive the savior, forget about man
Profits for heaven build kingdoms of greed
Whoring redempter, embezzle the weak
I am no one, without me he's unknown
Darkness gives power to light up his throne
Descend on earth in angelic display
The time has come to undo his restrains
I'm the temptation that swallowed his eve
god's inhibition leave nothing to see
Hatred and anger conceived from the dust
I am the shame and the filth of their lust
Forfeit the savior for cleansing of sins
Relive the site of his crucifixion
Tragedy follows the wealth of your faith
Holy disorder has fell into place
Banished from heaven, unsatisfied soul
Out of the way of Jehovah's control
Let upon earth to envoke its decay
The time has come for your god to take blame
08 Believe the Lie (02:50)
Time you died for your religion
Hypnotized by his infliction
Go to him, he is your savior
Leave this place, do us a favor
Believe the lie of a god you'll never know
Prepare to die when you least expect to go
A desperate mind will ignore reality
The word of christ has you lost in fantasy
Believe the lie to reside with him in death
Conserve to buy into what he's promising
Don't be so blind not to mind hypocrisy
You just might find what you want can never be
Take your life, be a true christian
For the lies of his existence
Sacrifice rendered unable
Book of god, it is a fable
Believe the lie to return from which we came
The serpent's light has you mesmerized again
When faith decides suicide at heaven's whim
Believe the lie, you are saved from all your sins
When is life worth a religion
Ease your mind, make the incision
Prey to him, incoming stranger
Son of god dead in the manger
09 The Truth Above (02:45)
Arrive on earth, from our past have returned
Not his child, christians in denial
His rule undone, we are their creation
The truth above does not know your savior
Unidentified evolution
Fallen truth, break the god illusion
Out of faith will revive with reason
Synchronize this world we live in
The truth coming will destroy his story
Not of this earth, we are part of research
Christian hunted, end of god confronted
The truth above, we are part who they are
Key to life is the question answered
Fly into never known advancement
Out of ignorance running rampant
Sterilizing us from disaster
10 Father Baker's (03:36)
There exists a place of agony
Where children are held captive
Belt across the back, the nuns attack
Believe in god or be beaten to death
Work to earn your keep, no time to sleep
You better know the bible verse
Or go without and die of thirst
Resent your birth - thanks to god!!!!!!!!!!!
At Father Baker's the pain is divine
If you are lucky you'll get out alive
Welcome to terror, you're where you belong
Father is waiting to show you your wrong
Learn early on to behave or you'll die
Live with his torture, no one to confide
Innocence lost by the rage he inflicts
Repent to god or the pain will persist
Kept inside a cage, humiliate
Till Father takes confession
Whipped unmercifully and left to bleed
And by the end to be one with god
Fast you into place, the final phase
Before you meet his maker
Do as you are told or you will go
And then you'll know what is suffering
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Other reviews
By Bloodthrone
From the start, you encounter solos and riffs that are different and in some sense more mellow compared to Legion or their self-titled album.
The standout is definitely the title track which annihilates the listener.
