Deicide
The Stench Of Redemption

I wanted to research Deicide, one of the iconic bands of Death Metal. I also wanted to research because I don't want to write clichés in my review, since we are dealing with the new album from Glenn Benton's band. I won't spend more words on Benton's bizarre personality because it would be banal and predictable. First of all: the band.

The Deicide return to the studio with a renewed lineup: Benton and longtime drummer Asheim call upon Jack Owen (Ex Cannibal Corpse) and Ralph Santolla (ex Death and Iced Earth, after the Hoffman brothers left. And perhaps this renewal has given new air to Benton's ideas. The album was supposed to be released on iTunes on June 6, 2006 (a little trick... 06/06/06), and after listening to it carefully, making small comparisons with the band's previous works (of which I consider only one the real pinnacle: 'Legion'), I can say that Deicide this time have produced a very good album.
We find ourselves once again facing the usual album of just 40 minutes, and as usual rich with outbursts of sonic brutality. Only 9 tracks, in Deicide style, excellent production, but above all many new and good ideas. Deicide had disappointed us with their old works: "Insineratehymn," "In Torment In Hell," and "Serpents of the Light" were mediocre, "Scars of the Crucifix" was not much as an album, even though signs of recovery could be felt.

The recovery is definitive in this album, and I don't hesitate to say that we even find small, very small fragments of melody on the guitars (not quite on the vocals though...). Needless to say, the album opens with the title track, "The Stench of Redemption" starts fast and aggressive, with Benton's infernal growl cursing continuously. The riffing is truly impeccable. The track features the first melodic hints on the guitars in unison, up to the solos: beautiful, well played, long but not boring, on the contrary. It continues with "Death to Jesus", which confirms my thesis: despite the track's speed, there are always small flashes of clear melody. A special note deserves the solos on this album: if in previous works they were fast and striking, in this album they are studied, conforming to the track, well executed, sometimes long, sometimes real duels between the two guitarists.
"Desecration" presents an interesting and fascinating intro, a pace theoretically slow compared to Deicide's standards and again this fascinating unusual tendency towards a refined and almost hidden melody. The track speeds up in the instrumental part only to close in the last vocal outburst by Benton.

So here we are at one of the tracks already released for promotion: "Crucified for the Innocence". Excellent track: a wonderful rhythm section, exceptional and original riffs, for a track that exceeds 4 minutes with a chorus that is easy to listen to and immediate in its memorization. Beautiful variation in the middle of the track with truly commendable solos. "Walk with the Devil in Dreams" presents a more heavy pace rather than death, but this small variation fades during Benton's singing, in which the rhythms become tight and more pounding.
"Homage for Satan" is the other track released for promotion, which presents a more thrash influence while maintaining a brutal and crushing pace throughout the track. "Not of This Earth" is strong, a powerful and brutal track from start to finish. Same impressions that "Never to Be Seen Again" reveals to me. Fast enough to ensure commendable sonic power. "The Lord's Sedition" instead is a gem: intro with guitar arpeggios sustaining a dark atmosphere from the start, with good melody guitar insertions that create a strong anticipation for the track's explosion. The instrumental section of this beautiful track is the best the new Deicide can do, and the track's explosion keeps you waiting for more than 2 minutes. A track that lasts almost 6 minutes and the most beautiful of the entire album. I would never give it a 5.

This album is orphan of the creative minds of the Deicide sound that fascinated me so much at the time of 'Legion'. This album is the fusion of several minds that don't really belong with Deicide, and precisely for this reason, it emerges as a really beautiful album, excellent at times, but inferior to that debut and that seminal album that was indeed 'Legion'. But hats off to a group that anyway managed, at least this time, to renew just enough to make an album that is truly noteworthy. And for Deicide, this habit was now lost.

I strongly recommend it to all Deicide fans and those of death metal finally done right.