DEICIDE
DEICIDE “Banished By Sin”
By Dr. Abner Mality
DEICIDE has had a rather checkered track record when it comes to album quality. Their first two albums still hit the hardest, sounding like speeded up SLAYER fronted by a bear with an abscessed tooth. From there on, it’s been kinda hit or miss. Which category is album #13 gonna fit in?
Well, this is pure DEICIDE for sure. The record still sounds kind of clean compared to the crusty origins of the band, but this fucker is FAST! Fast and very efficient, with 12 clipped tracks in less than 40 minutes of Satan-worshipping fury. Nor have the vocals of Glenn Benton mellowed with age. They still have that ferocious “roaring bear” tone, which is usually backed by more of a cackling, high pitched rasp. Very much in the vein of early DEICIDE. The current lead guitarist Taylor Nordberg, whose name has been associated with MASSACRE, THE ABSENCE, RIBSPREADER and more, delivers surprisingly tasteful and shredding leads...this has also been a part of the DEICIDE legacy.
Some tracks here just kind of exist as typical tunes, such as “Doomed To Die”, :”Faithless” and “Failures of Your Dying Lord”. Not bad, but done many times before. Others seems to reach a higher plane of mayhem. “Sever The Tongue” and “I Am I...A Curse of Death” really sound like they could have been right off the first two...just nasty, thrash-based death metal. Then “Woke From God”, the title track and the almost European black metal sounding “The Light Defeated” have a bit of a more epic feel without going overboard or ignoring the speed. These seem to come more from the band’s :middle” period. This slight mixing of styles, along with the album not wearing out its welcome, help make “Banished By Sin” a very listenable effort.
I still would have dirtied up the production a bit more, but Glen’s personal relationship with Satan sounds intact. This is 100% DEICIDE...nothing more and nothing less.