Overtures of Blasphemy

Deicide are one of those bands that I really don’t pay much attention to when it comes to newer material. In fact, I don’t really like anything they’ve done since Serpents Of The Light, save for The Stench Of Redemption. So when I heard that they were putting out another album, I actually sorta rolled my eyes. And then, one day, “Excommunicated” came on the SiriusXM Liquid Metal station, which somewhat impressed me. And after that, I read other great reviews of it. At that point, I thought I may as well give it a try. It’s only thirty eight minutes, anyway. Man, am I glad I did, because Overtures Of Blasphemy is the best record Deicide have put out in decades!

What usually turned me away from their post-classic material was the fact that it’s super one sided and bores the hell out of me. That isn’t the case here; Overtures Of Blasphemy brings numerous new things to the table. This may be tough to believe, but there are actually catchy moments! You read that right, Deicide has catchy songs. “Crawled From The Shadows” showcases a growled melody and it blows my mind. Never mind the fact that it’s based on blast beats and tremolos while Glen Benton forces out long drawn out growls. Then you have songs like “Seal The Tomb Below” where the vocals are almost spat out in rapid bursts, burning through the air.

More technical tricks make their way in, although I wouldn’t go into this expecting a whole lot of that. “All That Is Evil” easily has the best solo on here, as it starts out melodic and builds into a more aggressive punch. The bridges and progression of the rhythms on this track are pretty wild too. Speaking of the solid rhythms, “Anointed In Blood” has some of the grooviest treats that the band has ever laid out. The whole record is pretty tight with guitar work, but this part specifically absolutely kicks. My only real complaint with Overtures Of Blasphemy is that it does sometimes teeter off into repetitive territory, but not nearly to the degree of their previous records.

The best way to sum this up is that it absolutely burns. I can almost feel the heat from Hell when giving this a listen. If you’ve been skeptical of the band like I have, this is your chance to see that they’ve still got the chops when it’s executed right. Overtures Of Blasphemy came out on September 14th, 2018 through Century Media Records. This can be found just about anywhere in CD copy, and there are many different colored vinyl selections to choose from (I personally picked up the metallic gold color disc). How they managed to do this still remains a mystery, but I recommend this to anyone who digs skull crushing death metal.

Originally written for Indy Metal Vault:
https://www.indymetalvault.com/2018/11/09/album-review-deicide-overtures-of-blasphemy/