UMUR "Scars of the Crucifix" is the seventh full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The album was released through Earache Records in February 2004. It would be the last album by the band to feature the classic lineup which consisted of the Hoffman brothers Eric and Brian on guitars, Glen Benton on bass/Vocals and Steve Asheim on drums. The Hoffman brothers left the band in November 2004 citing a number of different both personal and financial issues as the reasons.

The music on "Scars of the Crucifix" is in the trademark Deicide satanic/anti-Christian fast-paced death metal style. The album contains 9 tracks and features an only 29:32 minutes long playing time. Titles like "Mad at God", "Fuck Your God", "When Heaven Burns", and "Go Now Your Lord Is Dead" leave absolutely no doubt that Glen Benton´s contempt for Christianity hasn´t decreased with the years. If anything it burns even stronger than ever on this release. Unfortunately his lyric writing skills are not very developed and several times I cringe with embarrasment at his immature hateful outbursts. I have no problem with the messages, but they lyrics just sometimes read like they were written by a five-year old child. It´s probably an aquired taste but personally I would have liked to have seen some development of the lyrical themes over the years...but of course it wouldn´t really be Deicide now would it? The music is as usual really fast-paced and very brutal death metal delivered with great technical skills. The musicianship is tight and everything from the busy powerful drumming, the brutal guitar riffs and blistering solo work, to the rumbling bass and hateful brutal growling just work.

The sound production is professional, raw, and powerful, and while it´s not the best sounding production job on a Deicide album (nothing in their discography really compares to the first three albums, neither in terms of songwriting nor in terms of production values) it´s still a good quality production, suiting the material well.

Upon conclusion "Scars of the Crucifix" is a good quality death metal release by Deicide, but there´s nothing new here and they´ve already done these things much better on their early albums, so while this certainly isn´t a redundant release, and it´s arguably a step up in quality from "In Torment in Hell" (2001), the changes which happened within the band over the next couple of years were welcome at this point. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Overtures Of Blasphemy" is the 12th full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The album was released through Century Media Records in September 2018. It´s the successor to "In the Minds of Evil" from 2013 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as guitarist Jack Owen has been replaced by Mark English.

Lineup change or not, very little has changed in the world of Deicide, and the listener is as always exposed to a fast and aggressive blasphemous/anti-Christian themed old school type of death metal, with Glen Benton´s raw growling vocals in front. Deicide have become slightly more melodic over the years (and the music also features more heavy mid-paced sections), but "Overtures Of Blasphemy" is still a full-on death metal assault from the opening notes of "One With Satan" to the closing notes of "Destined to Blasphemy". The band are well playing, and the tracks feature many memorable riffs, melodic leads, and powerful drumming. The growling vocals by Glen Benton aren´t however anything special anymore. Benton was one of the premier league growling vocalists of the early 90s, but it´s like he has either worn out his voice and is now relying on effects to produce his growling vocals, or he just isn´t up to it anymore. His vocals on "Overtures Of Blasphemy" are pretty standard (mostly unintelligible) one-dimensional growling vocals. There´s little aggression or passion left. He gets the job done, but that´s about it.

"Overtures Of Blasphemy" features a fat, heavy, and detailed sound production, which suits the material well. Upon conclusion "Overtures Of Blasphemy" is more or less what I expect from a Deicide album these days. Their heyday is long gone, but they still produce decent quality death metal, and while I´m not jumping upon and down in excitement a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved.

Vim Fuego Have you ever had the chance to go back and take a look at something you did a long time ago with a critical fresh perspective on it?

From 1999 to 2001 I was a full-time newspaper reporter for a regional daily newspaper in New Zealand. Due to the paper having a limited roster of reporters, I had a number of different rounds outside agriculture and general news reporting, which were my main focus. This meant I got saddled with a few rounds I knew nothing about, including environmental news (it’s funny, but conservationists don’t like talking to farming reporters), hunting and fishing (er, never done either of those recreationally), religion (atheist, so I gave all the different churches the same time coverage), and real estate (yawn!). It also meant I got a few plum roles too – back-up sports reporter (I got paid to watch rugby!), back-up politics (I got to talk to all the opposition MPs) history (which I have a degree in), and entertainment. Entertainment was my favourite, because it meant I got to interview any passing stars of stage and screen (and radio too), and I got free stuff – concert and movie passes, CDs, video games, books etc.

The CDs I got sent for review were mostly mainstream pop music. I did my best to be impartial, but some of them were just dreadful! So I did what any self-respecting headbanger would do in my position. I started reviewing stuff from my own collection! From 1999 to 2005 (I carried on writing as a stringer after 2001) the paper I worked for had more metal than any daily paper in the whole country. Probably.

By now you’re probably saying “So what? What does this have to do with Deicide? Get to the fucking point or I’m going to stop reading!”

OK, here’s the point: Deicide’s “Insineratehymn” was one of the albums I reviewed. I have just dragged out a yellowing, tattered cutting of the Ashburton Guardian entertainment page for Thursday, November 30, 2000. The page has an interview with Kiwi rock band Shihad (former thrash metal band – sellouts!) and reviews of “Suburbia” and “Insineratehymn”, all written by yours truly.

In the interview, Shihad were promoting their latest album, which I hadn’t heard (oops! Not a great way to research your interview!), but I got to shoot the shit with bass player Karl Kippenberger, who was genuinely nice, and was happy to talk metal, and was very polite when it was revealed I hadn’t heard the new album. Full confession: I still haven’t!

“Suburbia” was a novelty album. The cover had Astroturf stuck to it, and it was 74 minutes of someone mowing the lawn. Yep, the drone of a lawnmower going up and down a lawn. Not exactly riveting, but it did make a great Christmas present for my younger brother.

Alright, if anyone is still reading, time for the Deicide review. From here on, this is the actual text from 2000, with my 2020 comments in [square brackets].

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Deicide have often been criticised for their unwavering use of death metal clichés.[For some context, I think it was probably me accusing Deicide of cliché more than the metal media at large. I can’t remember why, but I wasn’t that keen on the band at this time. It makes me wonder why I bought the CD in the first place!]

Vocalist Glen Benton has never sung a note in his career, drummer Steve Asheim still abuses his double kick drums, and guitarists Eric and Brian Hoffman still reel off cheesy guitar solos. [I suppose I meant Glen Benton had always growled his vocals, but I probably should have pointed this out in such a mainstream publication. Those might be clichés, but Deicide’s sound has always been unique.]

However, Deicide have been playing this way for more than a decade now, and there is no reason they should change now. Does anyone ever tell AC/DC they need to change?[I still agree with this. Deicide’s sound was really distinct then, and still is now.]

As usual with Deicide, Glen Benton travels down the well-worn Satanic/anti-Christian lyrical path. While often working well, Benton dishes up a bit of a dud once on the album. The chorus to “Bible Basher” is almost funny. You can’t scream “bible basher” over and over and sound scary, Glen![Yeah, the chorus to “Bible Basher” still sounds really fucking stupid!]

However, Deicide are one of the few bands who practice what they preach. Benton still brands an inverted cross in his forehead on a regular basis, despite many thinking it was just for show.[I should have explained what the significance of the inverted cross brand was, for the non-metal audience again. How did I ever get paid for writing this shit?]

The Church of Satan has made him an honorary member, while shock rocker Marilyn Manson had to pay for his membership. Even the album cover has a stylised 666 on it.[Yeah, enough of the Satan shit. Did you forget you have a limited wordcount in a newspaper? What did the fucking music actually SOUND like? Mentioning Marilyn Manson was a good touch though – he was public enemy number one at the time, guaranteed people would read this, and probably the only Satanist most people had heard of.]

Deicide have slowed down on the odd track, to great effect. [Er, shouldn’t this be up a paragraph or two? And name some you lazy bastard! “Forever Hate You”, “Refusal of Penance”, “Standing in the Flames” maybe?] Some of the riffs come through with a crushing heaviness, where they would have been lost in a high speed blur in the past.[True. On the first two albums Deicide was just about straightforward speed. This really limited the scope of their music. The different dynamics after that really helped. Some of the slow chug riffs here, like on “The Gift that Keeps on Giving” paint a distinct contrast to the Asheim-led blast beats. “Halls of Warship” does it well too, the name of which looks like a typo, but the song’s lyrics also use the word “warship”. Who knows?]

Deicide will probably not pick up many new fans with this album, but the band has a well-established base, and are continuing to do what they believe in.[Actually Deicide didn’t really believe in this album much. It was a contractual obligation album, when the band’s label Roadrunner were being less than helpful. Deicide was far from a typical turn-of-the-millennium Roadrunner band, in that they weren’t playing commercially orientated nu-metal or rap metal, and had zero chance of ever gaining any radio play. However, in smashing out an album as quick as possible, Deicide produced a very strong album, almost accidentally. It was poorly received on it’s release, but it has actually held up well. There are some classic riffs here, and Benton’s vocals were clearer than on previous albums, but still just as bestial. He’d matured as a vocalist, if not lyricist. No, the song “Bible Basher” hasn’t got any better despite the passage of 20 years, but the other nine songs here are worthy additions to the band’s legacy.]

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Back in 2000, I would have rated this album 2 out of 5, but this is 2020. Now, I’d double that score. This is easily a 4 out of 5. It has all the essential elements of a good Deicide album – fast, heavy, chaotic, blasphemous. Unfortunately, it has the dud opening track, which drops it’s value a little. However, get past that and you’re into some good, solid Satanic death metal.

As for a fresh perspective on the writing? It’s fucking terrible! The original review does little to adequately describe the actual music, and fails to address it’s actual audience and panders instead to a small clique of readers. The paper’s circulation was about 6,000 copies a day. Hopefully, few people if any, remember this review besides me. On the other hand, every single issue of this paper back to it’s creation in 1880 has been archived, so this hack piece will be preserved forever more. Fuck…

UMUR "Amon: Feasting the Beast" is a compilation album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The compilation was released through Roadrunner Records in 1993. It features the material from the band´s two demo tapes "Feasting the Beast (1987)" and "Sacrificial (1989)", which were both released under the Amon monicker before the band changed their name to Deicide. A name change which took place in late 1989 just prior to the recording of Deicide´s self-titled debut full-length studio album "Deicide (1990)".

The tracklist is in reverse order, which means that the four tracks from the "Feasting the Beast (1987)" demo appear last on "Amon: Feasting the Beast", while the six tracks off the "Sacrificial (1989)" demo open the compilation. All tracks on the compilation appear in re-recorded versions on "Deicide (1990)" (except "Feasting the Beast", which is a short intro to the 1987 demo). "Oblivious to Nothing" was retitled "Oblivious to Evil" on the album version though. "Sacrificial Suicide" is featured twice on "Amon: Feasting the Beast", as the track originally appeared on both demos.

The material from the "Sacrificial (1989)" demo are recorded in a professional recording studio and features a very well sounding production. The sound quality is actually not far from the sound quality of the recordings on "Deicide (1990)", and most of the demo tracks also sound more or less like they do on the debut album. There are small differences though. For example in how the guitars sound/are played and the lack of samples on "Carnage in the Temple of the Damned". The vocals are also presented in a more stripped down version and doesn´t feature as many effects as they do on "Deicide (1990)". Overall the quality of the material and the recordings are very high and this demo could well have been released as a regular studio release. Listening to "Sacrificial (1989)" it´s no wonder Roadrunner Records signed Deicide.

The material off the "Feasting the Beast (1987)" demo is a lot more raw and unpolished. Best heard when comparing the early version of "Sacrificial Suicide", to the well produced and powerful version of the track featured on the "Sacrificial (1989)" demo. Both "Day of Darkness" and "Oblivious to Nothing" are great tracks though and although quite bit more raw and unpolished than the later version of the track, "Sacrificial Suicide" is also a quality track in this version. It´s all very lo-fi and noisy and Glen Benton´s distinct sounding intelligible growling vocals are on an early stage of development at this point. It´s not the material from "Feasting the Beast (1987)", which makes "Amon: Feasting the Beast" worth the purchase.

"Amon: Feasting the Beast" is still overall a quality compilation album by Deicide though. You can argue that there aren´t any material here, that you don´t have access to on "Deicide (1990)", and that the demo versions in most cases are so close to their studio counterparts, that it makes the demo versions redundant (at least when it comes to the material from "Sacrificial (1989)"), but personally I still hear enough differences for "Amon: Feasting the Beast" to be a worthy purchase for fans of the band. The material from "Feasting the Beast (1987)" could have been more interesting with a better sound production, but as it is, it´s still an interesting documentation of how the band sounded very early on in their career. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Legion" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in June 1992. Deicide enjoyed great success with their 1990 self-titled debut album and was at this point already considered one of the most prolific US death metal acts. Therefore the anticipation among fans and press were huge when "Legion" was finally released.

Stylistically "Legion" continues the blasphemous/anti-christian themed death metal of the predecessor but with a slightly more technical approach. The pace is predominantly very fast, and the material is raw and aggressive. 8 tracks distributed over a 29:04 minutes long playing time and then it´s over almost before you know it. Deicide deliver their music with great conviction and a burning passion. Fast-paced precision drumming, fast aggressive riffs and screaming atonal solos, and Glen Benton´s brutal growling/higher pitched screaming vocals in front. There´s the right authentic brutality and mean bite to the proceedings. Compared to the debut album the more technical playing is just one of the changes. Glen Benton´s vocals have also changed quite a bit. He still delivers both deep growling vocals and higher pitched screams, but his growling vocals are more the barking throaty type growls (completely intelligible) than the more brutal growling of the debut album. According to the liner notes it´s a consequence of no pitch shifters or harmonizers being used on the vocals on "Legion". Uncompromising as ever, and probably to proactively defend his new vocal sound against critical comments from reviewers, Glen Benton wrote these words in the liner notes: "This album was recorded with no harmonizer on my vocals, so for all my vocal critics, SUFFER".

The material is generally well written, but there aren´t as many catchy and memorable tracks as the case was on the debut album. The focus here seems to be more on brutality and the technically more challenging playing. Tracks like "Satan Spawn, the Caco-Daemon", "Dead but Dreaming", and "Trifixion" are still quite memorable though, and there´s nothing on the album which isn´t of a relatively high quality. There just aren´t as many tracks which stick as there are on the debut. The sound production is handled by Deicide and Scott Burns, and not surprisingly "Legion" therefore features a pretty classic sounding Morrisound Studios production. Powerful, raw, and brutal. The rhythm guitars are maybe placed slightly too low in the mix, which means the drums, the bass, and the vocals are quite dominating, but it´s not really much of an issue.

Upon conclusion "Legion" is a high quality death metal release. It shows development of style since the debut and while I personally don´t think it quite reaches the heights of it´s predecessor, it´s still a great sophomore album by Deicide, featuring high level musicianship, a powerful and brutal sound production, and good quality songwriting (although some tracks could have been a bit more memorable). A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.