Deicide: Overtures of Blasphemy (2018)

Deicide has had one of the more interesting careers among the Florida death metal bands of the late 1980's/early 1990's.  They have always been completely over-the-top about Satanism and Anti-Christianity which is their primary lyrical topic.  Their early albums are classics in the formation of death metal, but sometime in the late 1990's they began a downward spiral.  2006's The Stench of Redemption resurrected their career, but they were not really able to build on it, releasing one particularly disappointing album ('Till Death Do Us Part) and a couple of so-so albums.  So their latter career has been inconsistent to say the least.

The sound that made Deicide so important in the early formation of death metal was their simplistic, high octane riffs and uncompromising brutality, as well as their juvenile evil lyrics.  The only thing really clever about Deicide in the early days was the band name.  Over the years however, there has been a concerted effort to strengthen their songwriting chops.  The Stench of Redemption was probably their most mature and melodic album and they have been waffling back and forth for years since.

Which brings us to Overtures of Blasphemy.  Last year's album presents a return to the Stench form that resurrected the band.  As the album's title suggests, this is a very classical music-oriented album, not to suggest that fans of Wagner or Bach or even Orff are going to be impressed with it, it is a death metal album after all.  But there is a very real classical element to the leads and the solos that is very impressive and melodic.  The best example is the opening solo to "Excommunicated".  The current individual responsible for lead guitar is Mark English, also of Monstrosity and he is consistently amazing throughout the entire album. 

This is a truly monstrous sound from Deicide.  Everything feels massively huge and heavy with crushing riffs and bombastic solos.  Of course no Deicide album would be complete without the deep guttural roars of main man Glen Benton.  The songs are well-written and much more complex than the band's earlier works.  It is also an extraordinarily catchy death metal album, which is sort of a rare thing these days. 

This is easily the best Deicide album since The Stench of Redemption, at the very least.  It is at least possible that it is even better than that.  A few more listens should settle that.  For now, it is worth noting that this is an incredible return to form for a band many have written off.  We shall see if they still have more left in them.