•
Rating:
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.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Death to Jesus (03:53)
Calvary's son what have you done, Nothing but hang on a cross, Nazarene beaten to death, What is sin, your lord did you in... Putting your ass out to dry...
Just a pawn sentenced to die...
Revelation compromise, kill the world another time, In the name of God you hide, all behold the crucified...
Heaven's dissention, the light of the dead,
Absent as always, the crucifixtion,
What's in his name that you want us all dead,
Why do you question the voice in your head?
Reverence sours despising the meek, Biblical power, Descend into dream, Cast to the darkness contentious stay, Mourning forever his name you will pray...
Mutilation, Left to Satan,
Killed to save us, Death to Jesus
Under the sun, drained of belief, screaming at God to be dead, Dominus onward ascend, Fall from grace through the hands of the lord, Judas is hanging betrayed and ignored, F**k the Christ, Who will save, Retro Send, Arbitrating the soul, Come again and relive it you know, Crucified when you arrive, Rendered unconscious, Confined to the cross, Caught in the act of the end of us all,
Powerless again you die...
For the Father you despise, Bare the burden of his Sign, Holy tomb of emptiness, Suffocate inside your shrine...
Recitation, Salutation
God defeated, Death to Jesus
Revelation compromise, Kill the world another time
In the name of God you die...
Death to Jesus, Crucified
03 Desecration (04:31)
Children of Satan it's time to bring pain
Stand by your side when the Christians engaged
Angelic pastures is where we will war
Once and for all we will settle the score
In the presence of God, Holy crosses inverted
Retribution for what has been done by the churches
With no warning the word of the lord is in question
Preservation of life ever more
04 Crucified for the Innocence (04:35)
I have never hated anyone as much as you
Knife me once and then again and smile as you do
Ignorance the guiding light in your hypocrisy
From the time innocence were brainwashed to believe
Failure as a father and a friend to all man kind
On this day forever I will pray that you will die
Crucified for the innocence, on the cross you hang
Crucified for the innocence, back to god again
Crucified for the innocence, truth cannot be seen
Crucified for the innocence, You are dead to me
I don't need your love, Smite the lord above
Get away from me, take your bible leave
God is not the way, redirect the pain
Trample on his cross, sacrilegion
Spoiled with the likes of you and all that your about
Tragedy is all I've known and blame it all on god
All my life has been a maze of pain from what you done
It is for the blasphemy I aimed against the son
I will never come to you or give my heart to thee
When it is my turn to die I wont owe you a thing
Crucified for the innocence, on the cross you hang
Crucified for the innocence, back to god again
Crucified for the innocence, truth cannot be seen
Crucified for the innocence, You are dead to me
I don't need your love, Smite the lord above
Get away from me, take your bible leave
God is not the way, redirect the pain
Trample on his cross, sacrilegion
Follow in the path of thou receiving you in death
Horrified by what is right enjoy the suffering
Revel in catastrophe the gospel you resend
Pestilent the lamb of ged, irrelevant dement
Testaments succumbing eve fall victim to the times
It was always meant to be the end of Jesus Christ
Crucified for the innocence, on the cross you hang
Crucified for the innocence, back to god again
Crucified for the innocence, truth cannot be seen
Crucified for the innocence, You are dead to me
Glorified thy blood, free from sin become
Falter to his death, off the cross defect
Common sense of need, dead philosophy
Not to live as one, sacrilegion
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By mick7
"A lot, a lot of violence is unleashed by 'The Stench of Redemption,' and the first listen was quite traumatic for my ears."
"The performance of the musicians is noteworthy, drummer Asheim is a machine in terms of speed... Glen Benton does not disappoint both for voice and divine dissing."
By Tepes
The band of Master Brutaller Glenn Benton had returned with their best CD of all time.
I care deeply for Glenn Benton because he’s the only one who always stays brutal, and because even when others remove their corpse paint, he keeps his upside-down cross on his forehead.
By metallo_pazzo
"The new Deicide takes shape before your eyes."
"Glen Benton... his growling is constant, relentless, cruel: in 2 words, orgasmic."
