DEICIDE — Once Upon the Cross (review)

DEICIDE — Once Upon the Cross album cover

Album · 1995 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2018-02-28
UMUR

"Once Upon the Cross" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in April 1995. Deicide is one of the originators of the Florida death metal scene and enjoyed great success with their first two albums "Deicide (1990)" and "Legion (1992)", which are both widely considered classic death metal releases from the heyday of the death metal scene. By 1995 things had already changed a lot though and death metal as a music scene was popularity wise in decline. A lot of death metal acts lost their recording contracts or disbanded around this time, but Deicide stayed true to their style and soldiered on.

Which is why it should come as no surprise that the music on "Once Upon the Cross" pretty much continues the brutal old school US death metal style of it´s two predecessors. The anti-Christian/blasphemous lyrics are in place, which is abundantly clear when reading song titles like "Christ Denied", "When Satan Rules His World", and "Kill the Christian", the skillfull execution of the music is also present and accounted for, and the powerful Morrissound production by Scott Burns is also there, so as mentioned there are no surprises on "Once Upon the Cross".

So it can be argued that Deicide haven´t developed much and that "Once Upon the Cross" isn´t their most necessary release, but while there is some truth to that, the 9 track, 28:11 minutes long album is overall of such high quality that all is more or less forgiven. There are tons of artists out there who make the same album over and over again, and some artists can get away with it either for a while, or for the duration of their career, and on "Once Upon the Cross", Deicide still fell under the first catagory (it´s up for discussion if they fall under the latter today). They don´t necessarily sound as fresh or innovative as they did on their first two releases, but they still deliver their music with fierce conviction and a burning brutal passion.

Deicide is very well playing and perform both really fast parts and heavier ditto to perfection. Drummer Steve Asheim is technically skilled and changes pace with ease, the Hoffman brothers churn out one fast brutal riff and screaming solo after another, and vocalist/bassist Glen Benton delivers solid bass playing and distinct sounding and mostly intelligible deep growling vocals. His use of higher pitched screams is relatively limited on "Once Upon the Cross".

Upon conclusion "Once Upon the Cross" is a very strong death metal release by one of the most distinct sounding acts in the genre. High level musicianship, a raw and powerful sounding production, and songwriting that may not be as memorable and catchy as on the first two releases, but still is relatively memorable and way above standard for the genre. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

more than 2 years ago
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Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Excellent album, with highly controversial artwork. I think by the time they got to this album they had their sound pretty much nailed, and were building on it, rather than not developing.