Album review : DEICIDE – Bible Bashers (3 CD Retrospective)

Dissonance/Cherry Red [Release date: 24.02.23]

The first of the 3 CDs in this Deicide set, InsinerateHymn (fabulous title), was the band’s fifth album, released in 2000.

The band, led by bassist/ writer/ singer, Glen Benton, had made their not inconsiderable reputation on the back of a series of innovative, impactful Death Metal albums and road shows. No Christian beliefs had been left unoffended. No Holy Ground had been left unsullied. Their music did what it said on the coffin.

InsinerateHymn was something of a departure.

What we got were real tunes and narratives that could be followed and understood. The blasphemy, the violence, the intensity were all dialled down.

To be sure, Benton still growled and grunted his way through each track, his caustic lyrics surrounded on all sides by armour plated riffs, but this album was a small step nearer convention.

‘Bible Basher’ is probably Benton’s magnum opus. The howling, bulldozing ‘Suffer Again’ and ‘Refusal Of Penance’, aren’t far behind.

The titles of the other two CDs, Satan Lives On, and The Devil Rides On pay more than a passing resemblance to those of early 20th century novels by Denis Wheatley.

No coincidence. His novels brought Satan out of the shadows.

The first is a recording of the band’s live gig at the Chicago House Of Blues in 1998. It’s a focused, carefully channelled performance. The band had a sizeable hardcore fanbase in Chicago… and they got what they wanted. Heavy Metal as an emotional power, disturbing, lyrical, technical, dark in places, light in (very few) others. ‘Dead But Dreaming’, ‘Serpents Of The Light’ and the ever popular ‘When Satan Rules His World’ stood out, each getting the reception it deserved.

Third CD in this set is the band’s In Torment In Hell. It came in 2001, a year after InsinerateHymn.

It’s not what we expected. That previous album seem to provide a pointer to the band’s less intense future. Apart from the title track, ‘Christ Don’t Care’ and ‘Vengeance Is Mine’, the reports that Roadrunner Records rushed the band into recording and finishing in record time seems entirely credible.

Two out of three ain’t bad? ***

Review by Brian McGowan

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BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

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