There aren’t many bands that can get away with the tagline “legendary”, but Deicide are one. For good reasons or bad (most of the latter relating to apocryphal news stories and word-of-mouth scuttlebutt), they’ve carved a niche of their own in the world of Satanic metal. They’ve also produced some damn fine music over the years, combining a message of pure hatred with some actually good tunes.
Banished By Sin can be added to their catalogue as another example of how to make brutal music that is, for want of a better word, accessible. Some bands go too far into the extreme end of things for my liking, whereas Deicide know where to draw the line. Opener “From Unknown Heights You Shall Fall” is a great example, kicking off with a great intro that wouldn’t go amiss on a Slayer album. Given that I’m really looking forward to finally seeing the band live this year for the first time (thank you, Bloodstock), this just screams “intro tape” as the band walk on stage before the vocals kick in the the pit erupts at the 30 second mark. This is Satanic death metal meeting thrash metal and it’s absolutely wonderful.
What I like about the album is that it’s a great metal album. It’s not pretentious, it doesn’t try too hard and as a result it’s so easy to get into. It’s heavy and well-produced. The rhythms crunch and batter, the guitars wail and howl, and the vocals – both low and high – top everything off. In the hands of lesser bands it could so easily be cheese… but with Benton, Asheim and co at the helm it’s a juggernaut of evil.
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There are some great little solos, crushing rhythms, and lyrics you can scream at your neighbours when they piss you off. Even better if you live next door to a church for the giggles. A quick check of our last.fm will show you that I’ve listened to this beast more than just once or twice over the last week or so while trying to find the time to review it. I won’t stop listening once I’ve posted this online, either.
I’d say “Deicide are back”, but they never went away. They just festered in the dark for a while, and Banished By Sin is the gloriously unholy result.
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Header image by Gene Smirnov
Banished By Sin is out on April 26th
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