Album Review: Deicide- To Hell With God

I know, two Deicide posts from me in a row. Sorry, ever since the show I seem to have Deicide on the brain, but this album does need to be reviewed, I've been putting it off long enough. Their new album To Hell With God actually came out exactly a week ago today, so this seems like a pretty appropriate time.

Let's get right into it. Curiously, this album is actually much less heavy than everything else the band has done, at least in my humble opinion. All the ingredients are still there: blast beats, tremolo picking, double bass and anti-religious lyrics, but somewhere along the line something got turned WAY the fuck down. I don't know if it was the gain on the guitar, the bass levels, or if Glenn Benton just isn't growling as low as he used to, but this album just doesn't have the beefiness of all their previous efforts. Not to say that the music is bad, it just doesn't feel like Deicide; more like a younger, more inexperienced band covering Deicide, maybe. I hate to sound like I'm bringing it down so much, but the fact is this just isn't what we were expecting. But don't worry, To Hell With God is far from a failure. The band is keeping pace fairly well with their younger, faster counterparts with plenty of fast tempos, syncopated beats and impressively intricate guitar solos. And all the blasphemous lyrics we've come to know and love are still aplenty, with songs like the title track, "Empowered By Blasphemy" and "Angels of Hell" among others.

Other than the aforementioned complaints, there's really nothing wrong with the rest of the album. The production is clean and everyone's playing well, it just doesn't stand out much. I hate to say it, but this is probably going to go down in that obscure "just another Deicide album" group, kinda like the Worm Infested EP from Cannibal Corpse. But hey, this is just my first impression, maybe time will go by and I'll realize an error in my judgment, and To Hell With God might even end up being a modern classic. Who the hell knows? It's definitely worth picking up, but don't be surprised if it isn't quite what you were making it out to be in your head.

7/10

Disagree/agree with me? Maybe there's something else you thought about the album that I didn't mention? Either way leave your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to Tweet this article or share it on your Facebook. Keep coming back folks, we still have a few tricks up our sleeves.

-BK