DEICIDE - To Hell With God [Review]

Genre: Death Metal

Label: Century Media Records

Release Date: February 15, 2011

Reviewer: Karim Tarek


The word Deicide has two meanings, one of them is “the act of killing a being of a divine nature; particularly, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,” and the other is “one concerned in putting Christ to death,” and that’s basically the main point behind the band Deicide.

Deicide are one of the major, most prominent Death Metal acts of all time. They, alongside Death, Morbid Angel, Possessed, Bolt Thrower, Immolation, and a couple of other genuine Old School Death Metal gods, are considered the real vintage sound of Death Metal, the sound that heavily influenced shitloads of Death Metal musicians and bands along the years. In other words, Deicide to Death Metal are like Slayer to Thrash Metal.

Deicide have always been true to their cause, doing their best and striving to be considered as the severest pain in every devout Christian’s ass. They have been devoted to dissing every basic holy thing in Christianity, alongside Christianity itself of course. Desecrating and defiling all sanctities pertaining to Christianity. They have been spreading their brutal anthems of profanity for about twenty four years now, and guess what? It’s already 2011 now and they’re still fervent and passionate for making another “take that, Christianity” record.

When I first heard about Deicide planning on working on a follow-up to 2008’s “Till Death Do Us Part” I was pretty exhilarated, simply because I didn’t really like “Till Death Do Us Part” that much. I mean, “Till Death Do Us Part” was very good, but compared to masterpieces like “Legion,” “Serpents Of The Light,” “Once Upon The Cross” or “The Stench Of Redemption.” “Till Death Do Us Part” is the one that holds the least musical value of them, at least for me. It’s actually the album that I like the least for Deicide. So, hearing that Deicide were working on another album was quite a pleasant moment for me, expecting them to release a hell of an offset for “Till Death Do Us Part”, which was totally achieved on “To Hell With God,” which has a pretty strong and very catchy name by the way.

From the first listen, it was quite obvious that “To Hell With God” came better than “Till Death Do Us Part,” and was way too different from the rest of Deicide’s albums which actually satisfied me enough, but still when I kept on listening through it, I felt that something is strange about it. I kept on skimming through older Deicide albums trying to find out why is “To Hell With God” sounding strange to me, and I eventually found out; it was the glossy production and the lack of the usual intensive Old School sound. “To Hell With God” is so different from all other Deicide albums because of that crucial point in particular.

In spite of that, Deicide managed to craftily make this change in sound a good change; they retained their style of drumming that has always distinguished Deicide as one the most brutal sounds of the early nineties, alongside the fast and melodic solos and the famous Glen Benton vocals. In other words, they managed to do their thing in a new way and with a new sound. Yet, they still sound Deicide after all, and that’s a very good point that shows that Deicide were so much subtle this time, also smarter than a whole lot of old bands, bands that believed people were bored from their ordinary sound and decided to go through a change that actually turned out to be sheer crap and made them lose most of their fans. Deicide, on the contrary, gave all the bands out there a lesson on how changing sounds should be done.

What gave me a huge boner as an enthusiastic Death Metal fan, and was actually one of the most important factors on the album, was that the album sounds very TECHNICAL! (Refer to “Witness Of Death” and “Save Your” for elaboration). That’s not something you get on every Deicide album. So here it’s mainly about the typical outstanding Old School Deicide sound, the one that is present on all Deicide’s classics, infused with a lot of technicality, also brutality, melodiousness, excellent production quality, new musical approach and speed. Quite frankly I can’t ask for more; that’s plain perfection to me. I know some people will definitely hate this album because of the fact that it sounds noticeably different from earlier Decide work, but it just hit the notch for me.

Although “To Hell With God” is somewhat a short album (it’s only 35 minutes), it comprises a lot of astounding elements and enjoyable music.
Jack Owen manages to deliver riffs from hell; riffs on “To Hell With God” sound so thrashing and agitated, which reminds me of earlier Deicide work, and as if this was not enough for Mr. Owen to prove that he dominates most of Death Metal guitarists out there, he put a lot of the “Jack Owen trademark” awesome and eargasmic solos on the album. The solos from “Conviction,” “Witness Of Death,” and “Hang In Agony Until You’re Dead” for instance, are quite an evident proof that Jack Owen topped off more than half of all guitarists – alive and dead!

Steve Asheim and Glen Benton, who are two of the founders of the band, proved that they both are two monuments of Death Metal that get more valuable as time passes by; Asheim crushed the drum set on most of the songs with a lot of rage tinged with infernal blasphemy like in “Save Your” and “Witness of Death,” and still maintained the variability and diversity of the complete drummer, while the almighty Benton kept on eliciting the unholy psalms of profanity and chanting pure brutal blasphemy using his inhuman and unrelenting vocal cords alongside severing his bass strings with the bestiality of a thousand enraged wolves, in track with drums and guitars, and that’s how we eventually got one of those “complete” Death Metal albums. A one with all what it takes to satisfy a ravenous Death metaller.

Overall, “To Hell With God” is one of the milestones in Deicide’s history; it altogether holds a significant change in their style and introduces Deicide fans to a novel musical approach that was never before present on any Decide material, expanding the band’s horizons and widening its fan base. I really think that this is one of Deicide’s best albums, and my advice to you is to give much time to grow on you before you start comparing it to other albums or rating it because it’s not like the usual Deicide we’re used on hearing. I’m sure this album is going to be received positively in the Death Metal community.


Highlights: Save Your, Witness Of Death, How Can You Call Yourself A God.

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