Kev Rowland It is strange to realise that Deicide will soon be celebrating their 40th anniversary, being formed back in 1987, with bassist vocalist/Glen Benton and drummer Steve Asheim still around. There have been a few changes in guitarists over the years, but Kevin Quirion has been there on and off since 2007 although there is now a new boy in Taylor Nordberg for what is only their second album since 2013’s ‘In The Minds of Evil’. I am having troubles working out if Deicide have decidedly mellowed since I started listening to them in the early Nineties, or if I just appreciate death metal that much more than I did when I was younger, but this album feels far more mainstream and polished than what I expect from the band. Some of the material feels quite commercial, and if there was a different singer then I am sure the music would be viewed in a quite different light. Mind you, it is hard to think of anyone but Glen at the front of this band, tying his bass in with the pummelling Asheim while still producing the guttural growls we are all so used to.

Part of me thinks Deicide are somewhat going through the same old styles, knowing the fans will enjoy it so they do not have to put too much thought into it (like apparently using AI to generate the cover image which is way too clean), while the rest of me thinks Deicide have found their groove and are continuing to go down the path they helped create all those years ago. It may not be as raw and vital as it once was, but Benton and Asheim are in their fifties now, and most people do change somewhat as they get older, but even though this has a commercial angle and is far smoother than one might expect, it is still incredible heavy and wonderfully brutal. Hopefully the next album won’t take as long as this one, and they can bed Taylor in on the road so they come back even heavier.

UMUR "Banished By Sin" is the thirteenth full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The album was released through Reigning Phoenix Music in April 2024. It´s the successor to "Overtures of Blasphemy" from September 2018. There´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as guitarist Mark English has been replaced by Taylor Nordberg. The latter is a relatively prolific name in death metal circles having performed with artists like Massacre, Ribspreader, and Wombbath (among others...). "Banished By Sin" was released to some controversy regarding the AI generated cover artwork, which many fans heavily critiziced.

Stylistically there are very few surprises on "Banished By Sin" if you´re familiar with Deicide´s output since "Till Death Do Us Part" (2008). Lead vocalist/bassist Glen Benton maybe sings more of his high pitched demonic vocals and thereby complimenting his raw throaty growling vocals which ultimately makes the vocal part of the album relatively diverse, but other than that this is Deicide as we expect them to sound these days...anti-christian/blasphemous lyrics and all. Although they can still whip up a storm of blast beats and fast-paced riffs, "Banished By Sin" is predominantly a heavy and mid-paced affair. Everything is delivered with great energy and skill though, so Deicide are definitely still a force to be reckoned with (scene veterans or not). The lead guitar work is blistering and powerful, and Steve Asheim as always delivers a sharp and brutal drum assault.

"Banished By Sin" features a clear, heavy, and powerful sounding production job, but to my ears it´s almost too polished for Deicide´s music style. A bit more grit would have suited the material better. Upon conclusion "Banished By Sin" is a good quality death metal release from Deicide, but it´s not an album which rival their classic 90s releases, which isn´t surprising since nothing they´ve released since the mid-90s have been able to do that, but that doesn´t mean it´s not a release worth investigating and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Scars of the Crucifix" is the seventh full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The album was released through Earache Records in February 2004. It would be the last album by the band to feature the classic lineup which consisted of the Hoffman brothers Eric and Brian on guitars, Glen Benton on bass/Vocals and Steve Asheim on drums. The Hoffman brothers left the band in November 2004 citing a number of different both personal and financial issues as the reasons.

The music on "Scars of the Crucifix" is in the trademark Deicide satanic/anti-Christian fast-paced death metal style. The album contains 9 tracks and features an only 29:32 minutes long playing time. Titles like "Mad at God", "Fuck Your God", "When Heaven Burns", and "Go Now Your Lord Is Dead" leave absolutely no doubt that Glen Benton´s contempt for Christianity hasn´t decreased with the years. If anything it burns even stronger than ever on this release. Unfortunately his lyric writing skills are not very developed and several times I cringe with embarrasment at his immature hateful outbursts. I have no problem with the messages, but they lyrics just sometimes read like they were written by a five-year old child. It´s probably an aquired taste but personally I would have liked to have seen some development of the lyrical themes over the years...but of course it wouldn´t really be Deicide now would it? The music is as usual really fast-paced and very brutal death metal delivered with great technical skills. The musicianship is tight and everything from the busy powerful drumming, the brutal guitar riffs and blistering solo work, to the rumbling bass and hateful brutal growling just work.

The sound production is professional, raw, and powerful, and while it´s not the best sounding production job on a Deicide album (nothing in their discography really compares to the first three albums, neither in terms of songwriting nor in terms of production values) it´s still a good quality production, suiting the material well.

Upon conclusion "Scars of the Crucifix" is a good quality death metal release by Deicide, but there´s nothing new here and they´ve already done these things much better on their early albums, so while this certainly isn´t a redundant release, and it´s arguably a step up in quality from "In Torment in Hell" (2001), the changes which happened within the band over the next couple of years were welcome at this point. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Overtures Of Blasphemy" is the 12th full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The album was released through Century Media Records in September 2018. It´s the successor to "In the Minds of Evil" from 2013 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as guitarist Jack Owen has been replaced by Mark English.

Lineup change or not, very little has changed in the world of Deicide, and the listener is as always exposed to a fast and aggressive blasphemous/anti-Christian themed old school type of death metal, with Glen Benton´s raw growling vocals in front. Deicide have become slightly more melodic over the years (and the music also features more heavy mid-paced sections), but "Overtures Of Blasphemy" is still a full-on death metal assault from the opening notes of "One With Satan" to the closing notes of "Destined to Blasphemy". The band are well playing, and the tracks feature many memorable riffs, melodic leads, and powerful drumming. The growling vocals by Glen Benton aren´t however anything special anymore. Benton was one of the premier league growling vocalists of the early 90s, but it´s like he has either worn out his voice and is now relying on effects to produce his growling vocals, or he just isn´t up to it anymore. His vocals on "Overtures Of Blasphemy" are pretty standard (mostly unintelligible) one-dimensional growling vocals. There´s little aggression or passion left. He gets the job done, but that´s about it.

"Overtures Of Blasphemy" features a fat, heavy, and detailed sound production, which suits the material well. Upon conclusion "Overtures Of Blasphemy" is more or less what I expect from a Deicide album these days. Their heyday is long gone, but they still produce decent quality death metal, and while I´m not jumping upon and down in excitement a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved.

Vim Fuego Have you ever had the chance to go back and take a look at something you did a long time ago with a critical fresh perspective on it?

From 1999 to 2001 I was a full-time newspaper reporter for a regional daily newspaper in New Zealand. Due to the paper having a limited roster of reporters, I had a number of different rounds outside agriculture and general news reporting, which were my main focus. This meant I got saddled with a few rounds I knew nothing about, including environmental news (it’s funny, but conservationists don’t like talking to farming reporters), hunting and fishing (er, never done either of those recreationally), religion (atheist, so I gave all the different churches the same time coverage), and real estate (yawn!). It also meant I got a few plum roles too – back-up sports reporter (I got paid to watch rugby!), back-up politics (I got to talk to all the opposition MPs) history (which I have a degree in), and entertainment. Entertainment was my favourite, because it meant I got to interview any passing stars of stage and screen (and radio too), and I got free stuff – concert and movie passes, CDs, video games, books etc.

The CDs I got sent for review were mostly mainstream pop music. I did my best to be impartial, but some of them were just dreadful! So I did what any self-respecting headbanger would do in my position. I started reviewing stuff from my own collection! From 1999 to 2005 (I carried on writing as a stringer after 2001) the paper I worked for had more metal than any daily paper in the whole country. Probably.

By now you’re probably saying “So what? What does this have to do with Deicide? Get to the fucking point or I’m going to stop reading!”

OK, here’s the point: Deicide’s “Insineratehymn” was one of the albums I reviewed. I have just dragged out a yellowing, tattered cutting of the Ashburton Guardian entertainment page for Thursday, November 30, 2000. The page has an interview with Kiwi rock band Shihad (former thrash metal band – sellouts!) and reviews of “Suburbia” and “Insineratehymn”, all written by yours truly.

In the interview, Shihad were promoting their latest album, which I hadn’t heard (oops! Not a great way to research your interview!), but I got to shoot the shit with bass player Karl Kippenberger, who was genuinely nice, and was happy to talk metal, and was very polite when it was revealed I hadn’t heard the new album. Full confession: I still haven’t!

“Suburbia” was a novelty album. The cover had Astroturf stuck to it, and it was 74 minutes of someone mowing the lawn. Yep, the drone of a lawnmower going up and down a lawn. Not exactly riveting, but it did make a great Christmas present for my younger brother.

Alright, if anyone is still reading, time for the Deicide review. From here on, this is the actual text from 2000, with my 2020 comments in [square brackets].

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Deicide have often been criticised for their unwavering use of death metal clichés.[For some context, I think it was probably me accusing Deicide of cliché more than the metal media at large. I can’t remember why, but I wasn’t that keen on the band at this time. It makes me wonder why I bought the CD in the first place!]

Vocalist Glen Benton has never sung a note in his career, drummer Steve Asheim still abuses his double kick drums, and guitarists Eric and Brian Hoffman still reel off cheesy guitar solos. [I suppose I meant Glen Benton had always growled his vocals, but I probably should have pointed this out in such a mainstream publication. Those might be clichés, but Deicide’s sound has always been unique.]

However, Deicide have been playing this way for more than a decade now, and there is no reason they should change now. Does anyone ever tell AC/DC they need to change?[I still agree with this. Deicide’s sound was really distinct then, and still is now.]

As usual with Deicide, Glen Benton travels down the well-worn Satanic/anti-Christian lyrical path. While often working well, Benton dishes up a bit of a dud once on the album. The chorus to “Bible Basher” is almost funny. You can’t scream “bible basher” over and over and sound scary, Glen![Yeah, the chorus to “Bible Basher” still sounds really fucking stupid!]

However, Deicide are one of the few bands who practice what they preach. Benton still brands an inverted cross in his forehead on a regular basis, despite many thinking it was just for show.[I should have explained what the significance of the inverted cross brand was, for the non-metal audience again. How did I ever get paid for writing this shit?]

The Church of Satan has made him an honorary member, while shock rocker Marilyn Manson had to pay for his membership. Even the album cover has a stylised 666 on it.[Yeah, enough of the Satan shit. Did you forget you have a limited wordcount in a newspaper? What did the fucking music actually SOUND like? Mentioning Marilyn Manson was a good touch though – he was public enemy number one at the time, guaranteed people would read this, and probably the only Satanist most people had heard of.]

Deicide have slowed down on the odd track, to great effect. [Er, shouldn’t this be up a paragraph or two? And name some you lazy bastard! “Forever Hate You”, “Refusal of Penance”, “Standing in the Flames” maybe?] Some of the riffs come through with a crushing heaviness, where they would have been lost in a high speed blur in the past.[True. On the first two albums Deicide was just about straightforward speed. This really limited the scope of their music. The different dynamics after that really helped. Some of the slow chug riffs here, like on “The Gift that Keeps on Giving” paint a distinct contrast to the Asheim-led blast beats. “Halls of Warship” does it well too, the name of which looks like a typo, but the song’s lyrics also use the word “warship”. Who knows?]

Deicide will probably not pick up many new fans with this album, but the band has a well-established base, and are continuing to do what they believe in.[Actually Deicide didn’t really believe in this album much. It was a contractual obligation album, when the band’s label Roadrunner were being less than helpful. Deicide was far from a typical turn-of-the-millennium Roadrunner band, in that they weren’t playing commercially orientated nu-metal or rap metal, and had zero chance of ever gaining any radio play. However, in smashing out an album as quick as possible, Deicide produced a very strong album, almost accidentally. It was poorly received on it’s release, but it has actually held up well. There are some classic riffs here, and Benton’s vocals were clearer than on previous albums, but still just as bestial. He’d matured as a vocalist, if not lyricist. No, the song “Bible Basher” hasn’t got any better despite the passage of 20 years, but the other nine songs here are worthy additions to the band’s legacy.]

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Back in 2000, I would have rated this album 2 out of 5, but this is 2020. Now, I’d double that score. This is easily a 4 out of 5. It has all the essential elements of a good Deicide album – fast, heavy, chaotic, blasphemous. Unfortunately, it has the dud opening track, which drops it’s value a little. However, get past that and you’re into some good, solid Satanic death metal.

As for a fresh perspective on the writing? It’s fucking terrible! The original review does little to adequately describe the actual music, and fails to address it’s actual audience and panders instead to a small clique of readers. The paper’s circulation was about 6,000 copies a day. Hopefully, few people if any, remember this review besides me. On the other hand, every single issue of this paper back to it’s creation in 1880 has been archived, so this hack piece will be preserved forever more. Fuck…