Coming off their most successful release thus far in Passiondale, God Dethroned found themselves in the position of how to follow that album. The blackened death metal band opted to try to recreate the album. Keeping with the World War II theme, God Dethroned brings us this release. God Dethroned sounds a bit like a cross between Morbid Angel, Dismember, and Behemoth on this one. The guitars sound a bit like the famous Stockholm death metal buzzsaw sound, without aping the sound completely. There is also just enough murkiness and malevolence to the riffs to give them a slight resemblance to some of Trey Azagthoth's work. Of course the blast-beat driven drum sound has also returned on this album.
The vocals are delivered in a death metal roar. The vocalist Henri Sattler has never really deviated from that sound. Another similarity to the band's latest album found on this release is the addition of clean guest vocals on the title track by Marco Van Der Welde of The Wounded. When he is at his best, his vocals are spine-chilling. I do not believe he was used as well on this release as he was on the track "No Survivors" from the last album.
The overall sound of the album is chaotic. Obviously this is the idea when the overreaching concept is the brutality of war. The guitars are very loud and the riffs extremely heavy. There are seldomly any melodic parts and even when they are present, they are unnerving and eerie rather than calming. This is not an album for the weak of heart, certainly.
This album is not a step forward for God Dethroned. It is not that it is a bad album by any stretch, just that it is a lateral move from Passiondale. It's a damn good album, but it's just not quite to the same level as the last album. It is more of a recreation of the same album. Now some bands get by releasing the same album over and over (ahem Motorhead). So, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this. It is just a little disappointing.
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