Deicide- To Hell With God Review

   After spending much of my twenty young years on this earth despising anything death metal related, I have finally found an ear for it. The process began a couple days ago when I was introduced to one of the prominent members of the genre, Floridian death metal band Deicide. The main reason for my venture into the world of death metal was the subject material this band expressed, which greatly interested me. Deicide is a band that despises anything Christian related, and most of, if not all of their songs have anti-Christian themes. Their latest and tenth album To Hell With God obviously expresses these same beliefs. While I am by no means an Atheist or Satanist, I found their lyrics different from the cookie cutter garbage we hear now a days and I wanted to give them a listen. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. The first track off the album, the single To Hell With God is the best track and sets the tone for what follows next on the record. Whenever I listen to an album, the music always comes first and the lyrics second, and on To Hell With God, the music is simply phenomenal. I love the heaviness this album boasts, with the drums literally kicking the shit out of your ears, and amazing riffs throughout. As with all death metal bands, the vocals are in the form of cookie monster growls, but lead singer and bassist Glen Benton is able to perform them clear enough where you are able to decipher what he is saying. However, this may not be a good thing for some people, since the lyrics are not happy and joyful but angry and full of hatred. Take the song Empowered by Blasphemy for example where Benton states “Pleading of prays, cling to the dead, bring back the Christ to be slaughtered again.”Or on the song Conviction which states, “The work of Jesus was the devil in fact, his miracles were nothing more than a trap, lies pinned upon the cross, crucify his false religion.” This is the message presented throughout the entire album, and in fact throughout Deicide’s entire category. I understand Deicide is not for everyone and most people will put it off before they get thirty seconds into a song, but for people who are searching for a heavy album where they could just release some anger and kick ass, To Hell With God is the perfect album. As far as death metal bands and albums go, I do not have a lot of experience, so I cannot compare it to anything in the genre. If you are able to ignore the temptations to crucify priests and sacrifice small children, To Hell With God is a great album with a ton of replay value and I highly suggest it to anyone into the death metal scene.

Ranked on the Beavis and Butthead Scale: 3 Beavis’ out of 5 Buttheads

Best Songs: To Hell With God, Conviction, How Can You Call Yourself a God