Deicide

Now into their third decade of blasphemy and brutality, Deicide have established a legacy that few death metal artists can match. In 2008, Glen Benton and company put forward an effort that sounds somewhat repetitive but still cements the Floridians as being both relevant and worthy amongst today’s pretenders to the throne. With Till Death do us Part, the band’s ninth studio album, the most powerful aspect is the might of Benson’s voice. From start to finish, Glen’s growls resonate so incredibly low, and are so beautifully rough, that it makes one wonder how his throat has survived all these years of death metal vocals. Behind him, former Cannibal Corpse man Jack Owen returns as a solid sidekick for Benton on guitar, and the twin axe attack delivers some great riffs, at times. But that is where the album’s weakness lies: it is sadly inconsistent, as the first batch of tracks seems to drag on, bordering on repetitive. If one were not a Deicide fan beforehand, it would be somewhat difficult to plough through this album and this would certainly not be the record for the uninitiated to "discover” Deicide. Luckily, the band pick it up for the last three or four tracks, throwing in some more creative riffing and ripping solos that hearken back to the glory days of the death metal scene.