Death is June - Deicide's "Deicide"

 

Last year, I tackled reviewing the entire discography of Cannibal Corpse; this year, I am going through Deicide's catalog. They are a band whose name does not get brough up as much as needed when talking about the early days of extreme metal and the influence they had, as this album was more bludgeoning and extreme than where Morbid Angel was at, so let's see how these albums have held up over the test of time. The opening track "Lunatic of God's Creatioin" benefits from the element of surprise and the gritty rumble of the bass tone that is locked in with the drums to create a heavier feel than what was out at the time. At under three minutes, it's a powerful jab to your eardrums. The song is actually about Charles Manson, even though they were supposed to be a Satanic death metal band; they branch out into various serial killers and mass murderers, along with horror movies, not making them as far removed from the pack as perceived back in the day.

"Sacrificial Suicide" is more thrashing than the opening track, and with that comes a hookier interplay of the vocals with the riff. "Oblivious to Evil" finds the taunt razor-edged riffing slicing at you. The lyrics are not as articulated as well on this album, so the vocals just ride the guitars."Dead Bt Dawn's highlights how the double-tracked vocal approach helped to set these guys apart and create a more demonic sound that black metal bands to come would take notes from. The "Evil Dead" theme worked for what they were doing at the time. When it comes to coming up with a title like "Blaspherereion" teenage me thought it was cool, but looking back, it's kind of silly and amounts to heavy metal poppycock to any serious Satanist or occultist. The song is a rabid speed fest, with catchier vocals than most bands that fail at this sort of thing. 

"Mephistopheles" is another blazing fast song that finds them accelerating to the point that it is too fast for its own good, as it makes the song less memorable than some of the more purposeful moments on this album. 

For all the silly moments, there are songs like the eponymous title track that are absolute timeless death metal classics and make it worthwhile. Lyrics aside, it all works perfectly, with impressive vocal intensity and blinding drum work. The homage to Jim Jones, "Carnage in the Temple of the Damned" is thrashier and benefits from the purposeful vocals locking in on the chorus. The same can almost be said of "Day of Darkness' though this one is maringally more deliberate, which was enough to not make it a fast-forward classic. While the lyrics to "Crucifixation" are dumb, the song is pretty classic, with a Slayer-like chaos coming from the guitars. The album's strongest songs balance out the silliniess and speed obsessed sloppiness of some songs, making this worth rating a 10, as it broke new ground for the extreme metal should be willinging to go.  I also have to take into consideration the impact it had on me when I heard this album as a teenager.

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