The Grand Grimoire

In 1993, after the debut album “The Christhunt” was released, God Dethroned split up. But Henri Sattler, who in the meantime played in doom metal act Lords of the Stone, decided to reform his old death metal band in 1996, bringing a completely new line with him. The second album “The Grand Grimoire” came out in 1997 under Metal Blade Records and surely it was a worthy and noticeable comeback, very successful, both when speaking of the music and when speaking of the promotion and feedback the band received.

Honestly, I will always consider “The Christhunt” as my favourite God Dethroned album, because it’s the closest to what I like in death metal and musically it fits my taste perfectly, with that harsh sounding, dark, satanic death metal that the band recorded for the debut. “The Grand Grimoire” and all other albums which God Dethroned recorded after the reunion, are quite different stylistically, I dare to say that they don’t have much in common with the debut record, but that doesn’t mean it’s something bad. First of all, the music became much more melodic, with plenty of memorable harmonies spread throughout, which is why the album is so easily listenable and catchy as well. I think I can describe these melodies as melancholic, especially in songs like “Under the Silver Moon”. What worked so well on “The Grand Grimoire” is that God Dethroned managed to combine these melodies with great aggressive death metal, with good variation between fast and slower parts and a very nice, energetic sound. I like that they have a good balance between all these aspects and more so, I also like that the production is not over polished and it still has that sharp, dirty tone on the guitars, and vocals that sound so vicious (although Sattler’s harsh, screaming voice is very different to his growls on the debut album, where he used a lot or reverb and sounded much more inhuman). The music also seems to be way better played, it is completely derived of that chaotic and messy character of the debut album, with not a slightest sign of death metal primitiveness. Good technical skills, some great guitar leads… yeah, it's definitely good stuff from start to finish.

The songwriting on “The Grand Grimoire” is very good. There are many songs that will stay in your head and are really standing out. The vicious and very fuckin angry and aggressive, and “The Art of Immolation” is my favourite, I love its savage sound and fast parts. The title song brings some of the best riffs of the whole album, with a great mixture of melodic and nasty riffage and it is so memorable that you’ll want to play it again and again. The third track I wanna mention is “Under the Silver Moon” – it stands out not only due to this killer mixture of brilliant fast death metal and melodic, almost doomy parts… but also with some of the most blasphemous lyrics on the whole album. “Copulating Maria!!!!!!!”, yeah! “Into a Dark Millenium” is another fine song, so bloody malicious and aggressive! And I suppose the only song which I don’t like so much is the final track “Fire”, which is obviously a cover of Arthur Brown. But it’s just a cover, so it doesn’t even matter much. The rest of the album is good enough to make me forget about it anyway.

Standout tracks: “The Art of Immolation”, “The Grand Grimoire”, “Under the Silver Moon”
Final rate: 80/100

Sometimes there's nothing better than a trip down memory lane. In this case, that would mean revisiting The Grand Grimoire with all of its glories. It's an example of a band blowing its load somewhat early as this album listens as a furious compendium of all of the traits God Dethroned would exhibit throughout their career, but presented and executed in a much more raw, unpolished, and vicious way. The best of the bunch in short.

Listeners are assaulted by a barrage of aggressive riffs and powerful double bass and blastbeats from the get-go. Barring the somewhat eccentric, yet good The Christhunt, this album contains the most lethal set of riffs the band produced. Much of the vicious nature of this album is due to the production which is bordering lo-fi, yet powerful and clear. All of the instruments are balanced well and are perfectly discernible (just listen to the bass run on the title track), but there is this uncompromising raw character to the proceedings here that the band never captured on other albums. The solid riff basis here is death metal, but tempered with two other characteristic traits that can't be neglected. The foremost of these is the thrashing riffs which intertwine with more obviously death metal riffs to produce total chaos. First riffs on cuts like "The Art of Immolation" and especially on "Colosseum Serenades" show something of a critically neglected influence exerted by the general thrash template. "Colosseum Serenades" is a giveaway in that regard with its swirling and kind of playful riffs which perfectly complement the theme of trying to survive the lions in the ancient fighting pit. Other songs also contain riffs which are awfully similar to thrash riffs, notably the title song with its driving mid-tempo riffing, but f the Dutchmen had downtuned their guitars, the resemblence to thrash wouldn't have been so clear. There's a great balance between these riffs and the madness inducing tremolo riffs, which are propelled by furious blastbeats. The latter kind of riff is almost out of control on cuts like "Sickening Harp Rasps" which stomp everything in its path.

The stomping is driven by some tight and dynamic songwriting. One of the best things about the album is it never sinks deep into one mode of operation; tracks like "Under a Silver Moon" show this knack for dynamic songwriting, along with the title track that shifts from mid-paced riffs to crazy tremolo runs without any hint of a problem with transitions. In some songs, melodic breaks are also accompanied by keyboards which add to the atmosphere, and in general there's so much going on in individual tracks that one's attention is clutched firmly in this devilish clasp. The other characteristic I mentioned are those melodies that find their way to enrich the songs in a glorious way, first and foremost the melancholy leads of "Under a Silver Moon" which both provide a sublime respite from the aggression preceeding it and work as an integral instrumental element in the development of the song's narrative lyrics. The harsh sarcasm of the lyrics dealing with the immaculate conception is intensified by Henri's trademark mid-range, raspy growl which at a crucial point (namely, when Joseph concludes he "doesn't know how to fuck") transitions into outright hysterical screaming. The vocal style is an obvious point of continuity between earlier and later God Dethroned releases despite the fact that Henri diversified with the later addition of more gruff and lower-pitched grunt. Leads are used to similar effect, but at the tail end of the song in"The Somberness of Winter" which is the first historical epic this band produced and an early sign of things to come.

When all is said and done, you've got a tremendous death/thrash album right here, one not afraid to incorporate elements like melancholic leads and atmospheric touches which are reminiscent of black metal to an extent. Yet it rips off heads and it does so without blinking. The only flaw is the song that ends the album, a cover of Arthur Brown, who couldn't hope to souds as unhinghed as this rendition. Even though it's an interesting choice for a cover. an experimental psychedelic rock number, it is simply too damn chaotic for its own good. Still, this album is a mandatory listen and a condensed God Dethroned of later albums.

God Dethroned's second album, "The Grand Grimoire", shows a massive evolution from the brutal yet rather unprofessional nature of the band's often forgotten 1992 debut, "The Christhunt". That album was a slab of simple, gritty, lo-fi death metal with an extremely dark atmosphere, but it also hinted at some more complex songwriting arrangements, and the signature riffing-style that would go on to develop God Dethroned's sound as time went on. Here, five years later, every single member who was involved with the original incarnation of God Dethroned was cast to the wolves, never to perform music again, with the exception of vocalist/guitarist Henri Sattler, now joined by two of the members who would go on to define the God Dethroned sound in the years to come (Jens van der Valk on lead guitar, and a bassist known only as Beef), and drummer Roel Sanders, who was also arguably the best drummer in the history of the band.

So naturally, with all those changes, a change of sound is to be expected. While a large chunk of the band's root-sound manages to stay intact here, their traditional death metal leanings are now combined with a hefty dose of black metal (of the more melodic, Swedish variety, so think Dissection, Sacramentum, or Unanimated), creating a sound which merges the two styles into a cohesive whole that retains the blunt-force trauma of death metal, while simultaneously portraying the cold nihilistic darkness of black metal. An example of this is the track "The Somberness of Winter", most notably in the verses. But perhaps the most striking thing about this release, is the band's use of melodic guitarwork. While a track like "The Art of Immolation" features riff-work resembling the kind of thing Dismember were doing around this time with their "Death Metal" release, in essence a more stereotypical "melodeath riff" structure, other tracks utilize melody with what can only be described as utter genius. For example: the album's title track, "The Grand Grimoire", while it features some arguably rather gorgeous melodic riffing, it doesn't really approach what I would consider "saccharine", as some bands like In Flames might. Rather, there's still a level of darkness and evil behind it all. Most notable here is the passage at 2:23, which features some of the most powerful and emotional riffing held on the entire album (while Henri screams the powerful line "WATCH THE BLOODRED SKY, TURN BLACK...FUCKING BLACK!!!!!"). Other tracks like "Under a Silver Moon" hammer this point further, with the furious verse, which approaches a level of Angelcorpse/Krisiun-esque intensity, juxtaposed with some more melodic, black metal chordwork in the chorus which isn't far from what you might find on an Unanimated album. For most bands, that would sound out of place and stupid, but God Dethroned have found a way to utilize melody while still sacrificing virgins on the altar of Satan.

Lyrically, this entire era of God Dethroned is based largely around Satanic and Anti-Christian themes, with some variation thrown in. A track like "Coloseum Serenades" depicts the persecution of Christians at the hands of the Romans (Henri's screams of "OH NO, PLEASE GOD NO!!!" are a particular high point), while others like "The Somberness of Winter" deals with a Danish explorer who is searching for a passage to the Indies but ends up finding a passage to hell (apparently this is based off an old Dutch legend, a theme which would become even more prominent in the future). Other tracks go for a more *ahem* interesting approach, with "Under a Silver Moon" being about a Satanist/Demon who rapes the Virgin Mary to impregnate her with the anti-christ. While some of the lines go a bit overboard and awkward ("How could this happen - I don't know how to fuck?!?!?"), the overall ideas behind each track feel interesting and inspired, and above all else, while these lyrics may not be on the level of Walt Whitman, it's impossible not to smile at the level of enthusiasm that is beaming from these lyrics, there's just a sense of fun to it all.

Vocally, Henri Sattler has completely ditched the deep death growls from the debut, and is now using a more raspy, black metal-esque growl (with a bit more of a guttural "bite" to it, comparable to someone like Necrophobic's Tobias Sidegard). While this is the style Henri is most known for, this is arguably the best vocal performance in his career, as he sounds absolutely fucking evil here. Also, that fucking album cover, man. One of the absolute coolest pieces of art I've ever seen for a black or death metal CD, which as anyone into the scene should know, is really saying something.

Overall, this is a fucking amazing blackened death metal CD, and possibly one of the best CD's available in the genre (of course, Akercocke's "The Goat of Mendes" & Necrophobic's "The Nocturnal Silence" are obvious contenders as well). I recommend this for anyone who loves dark, evil, & Satanic music, but doesn't mind a little melody to go along with it, either.

My Initial exposure to God Dethroned was perhaps not not the best one could hope for, it was the song "Typhoid Mary" off of their somewhat more commercialy oriented (but still respectably solid) album The Toxic Touch. It was this song, with it's dark melodies, memorable riffs and the characteristic rasps of Henri Sattler that inspired me to dig through the rest of the bands discography, in search of more of their excellent brand of what I like to call "melodic blackened death metal".

Which brought me to this album, The Grand Grimoire. An album that appears to be somewhat lesser known than the bands latter efforts such as Passiondale and the afforementioned Toxic Touch, but is certainly not inferior to those works, on the contrary, the music contained within is quite excellent and certainly as worthy of attention.

So lets dig into what this album has to offer shall we?

I find the music on this album to be quite a bit rawer than much of what the band would put out later, every song on this album is full of energy and quite invigorating, the guitar tone equal parts crunchy and sharp, with powerful, energetic drumming and a vicious vocal performance from Henri Sattler. The guitarwork is quite good, the riffs are versatile, well executed and guitar solo's appear at various key points in certain songs, nothing too exceptional, but it gets the job done very well. There are what sound like keyboard effects used in some of the songs, and along with the dark melodies conjured by the guitars they do an incredible job of bolstering the albums already superb atmosphere, with the song "The Somberness of Winter" being a truly excellent example of this.

The album starts off with "The Art of Immolation" a ferocious little number that does well to represent the albums faster, more visceral songs, with it's speedy drumming, sharp riffs and a savage vocal performance. It's followed by the title track, and the interesting little instumental keyboard/synth interlude "The Luciferian Episode". The album's middle section offers us two songs that in the context of the album I would call "epics". These songs are "Under A Silver Moon" and "The Somberness of Winter" respectively. They are each over six minutes long, and feature strong somber melodies and keyboard (I think) uses. Two of my personal favourites, for sure.

The album ends with another favourite of mine, the most excellent "Coloseum Serenades" (the riffs in this one are amazing) and an Arthur Brown cover, "Fire". I really don't know much about this artist, so I'm not too sure what to make of this one.

This album was a really great find, It's one that I would recommend to almost any fan of extreme metal, and certainly to any fans of God Dethroned's later material. A wonderful Blend of of fury and melody, well worth the rating I've given it.

Personal favourite tracks: "The Art of Immolation" "Under A Silver Moon" "The Somberness of Winter" and "Coloseum Serenades".

P.S I purposefully left description of the songs "Sickening Harp Rasps" "The Grand Grimoire" and " Into A Dark Millennium" out of my review, partly in an effort to keep this from turning into a track by track review, and partly because these songs, despite being quite good, did not grab my attention in the same way as the others. This may change as I continue to give the album repeat plays.