Deicide
The Stench Of Redemption

THE REVIEW

After a decent comeback like the previous "Scar of the Crucifix", Deicide tries again with a lineup changed by half. Fortunately, the choice to replace the Hoffman brothers fell on two excellent artists, an epic and technical Ralph Santolla and a Jack Owen who needs no introduction for fans of brutal death.

Preceded by the single (with a -nice- video) "Homage for Satan", the idea I almost mistakenly had was that the sound had in some way softened, if you can call it that, given the insertion of typically power solos. But I was hugely mistaken: a lot, a lot of violence is unleashed by "The Stench of Redemption," and the first listen was quite traumatic for my ears (not exactly virgin to this type of sound). Catching my breath after the half shock, I immediately started congratulating myself on the good purchase: The first, which is also the title-track, contains a really cool black-death melodic instrumental part; "Desecration" instead seems borrowed from "Gallery of Suicide" by the cousins Cannibal Corpse (and here comes Jack the bald with his characteristic riffs) for piece construction and "melody"; moving on to "Crucified for the Innocence" which features a fantastic chorus, at times baroque for the guitar lines: definitely one of my favorites along with the already mentioned "Homage for Satan", simple and direct with another melodic solo "rocketing" by Santolla; finally, "The Lord's Sedition" which surprise-surprise, starts with an arpeggiated melody that I immediately linked to those composed by the newly-suicidal Jon Nodveidt leader of the Dissection.

The rest of the tracks are the ones that impressed me less, yet absolutely do not detract from their validity. The performance of the musicians is noteworthy, drummer Asheim is a machine in terms of speed, although a bit more creativity wouldn't have hurt (possibly at the expense of power otherwise called "smakko"), the good Glen Benton does not disappoint both for voice and divine dissing while cheerfully not caring about the clown satanist figure he makes (but deep down we love him just the way he is); the two axes are formidable, Owen rhythmically speaking is excellent, as for the soloing... well, I've never found it anything special.

The deluxe edition contains a mini poster depicting the cover and four frankly useless postcards with photos of the members (not as if they were beauties...). A really stylish comeback that hopefully will continue for future releases.

P.S. For those on Debaser who get annoyed by everything (and there are many): I know very well that a review of this record was already present, but I still wanted to express a personal judgment. Debaser is beautiful because it is free, let's not create a dictatorship please, thank you.

P.P.S: I hope no one minds if I exclude anonymous messages, but I don't want stupid comments if the author doesn’t sign.