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DEICIDE
Overtures Of Blasphemy

Century Media (2018)
Rating: 8/10

Say what you want about Glen Benton and his dark disciples, but Deicide will remain forever cemented in the annals of death metal folklore as a ferocious and controversial beast.

Okay, so for me their first two albums – Deicide (1990) and Legion (1992) – have never been beaten and releases since have been somewhat inconsistent, but here we are again, submitting to another intense, hellish expression of satanic crossfire with what is the band’s 12th release.

It’s been five years since their last outing and so with Overtures Of Blasphemy we’re treated, as expected, to an unflinching and unrelenting juggernaut, and one which coughs up such fire-branded scores as ‘One With Satan’, ‘Excommunicated’, ‘Anointed In Blood’, ‘Defying The Sacred’ and ‘Destined To Blasphemy’. All of which, among scorched others, are snappy expressions of godly opposition earmarked by Benton’s furious vocal flurries matched only by his frantic bass lines which quake like the foundations of a church attacked from below by demons.

Couple such devilish emissions with some truly exasperating leads and that brutal percussive demonstration and you have another highly charged Deicide opus. This is album which burns to its hilt with bright red flames and is up there with the most satanic and blistering of unholy creations.

We know what’s coming, even if a track begins with an almost mid-tempo melody, because through it all a blackened heart pumps hastily and is constantly spiked and stabbed by a myriad of flailing leads as the drums come flashing in foaming tirades of blood-stained thrashiness. And yet heaps of melody abound too, nowhere more evident than on ‘Seal The Tomb Below’, one of the album’s catchiest structures that brutality combines Benton’s hideous burps with flashes of sporadic technicality.

However, for the most part, as we’ve known for years, Deicide rarely resorts to anything complex or progressive, instead supplying overwhelming waves of intense death-cum-thrash stained with cheese-flecked lyrics (“spread your holy legs”!). And the punkier threads of ‘Crawled From The Shadows’ simply showcase the tightness of Deicide as a unit. But melody is never sacrificed, and that’s something which people tend to overlook when listening to the band as they spend so much time embroiled in the old school dynamics.

Speaking of old school, Deicide still maintain high levels of what made them so potent in the first place. A track such as ‘Compliments Of Christ’ is a prime examples of such tension and atmosphere, while the thrashier aspects come to the fore with ‘Flesh, Power, Dominion’.

Admittedly, some of the tracks do melt into one another and flash by in generic fashion, but that’s mostly when the speedy hammerings are delivered in such abundance. Chaos ensues throughout the 12 tracks on offer, and there’s a good mix to proceedings too with Benton’s vocals and bass given extra punch and catchiness. And that hookiness is something which I adore about so many of tunes on the opus, because while we expect the usual nasty flurries and weight there’s a genuine accessibility to tracks such as ‘Consumed By Hatred’.

While it feels the band remains a world away from earlier classic efforts, Deicide’s latest offering is still an essential addition to the catalogue. Overtures Of Blasphemy is a consistently good recording that strips flesh and bloodies bones, and all in the name of the lord below.

Neil Arnold

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