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Track Listing: Save Your Empowered by Blasphemy Conviction Hang in Agony Until You're Dead To Hell with God Servant of the Enemy Witness of Death Angels in Hell Into the Darkness You Go How Can You Call Yourself a God

After being pushed back a couple of times, the tenth full-length studio offering by death metal stalwarts Deicide, titled "To Hell With God", is finally ready to release. It's their first album under the Century Media label, and hence you would expect them to deliver the goods in an endeavor towards a long term relationship with the label. It's also the first album to feature Kevin Quirion on guitar who joined the band two years ago. After a largely successful previous album "Till Death Do Us Part" which came out in 2008, let's see if this one lives up to the expectations. Now, as far as the track listing goes, I've seen two different versions of it in press releases, but I'm going with the latest one that's been given to me.

"Save Your" gets the album to a relentlessly brutal start and offers plenty of speedy, ear-piercing aggression in the beginning, while settling down into some darker, more melodic segments in the latter half largely due to the guitar solos. A crushing yet technically precise beginning that's a fair indicator of things to come. "Empowered by Blasphemy" follows, and is slightly more progressive in nature, going through patterns of varying speeds and complexities. There is certainly no shortage of shredding and soloing on this one, something that should please all listeners. When played live, this one should get those windmilling heads rolling at full tilt. On the other hand, the next track "Conviction" ironically doesn't have much conviction about it and doesn't offer much other than a nicely crafted guitar solo. It's probably the weakest track on the album, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that it'll grow on me in days to come.

The album moves on with "Hang In Agony Until You're Dead", a track which has been laid down with some solid riffs and solos that combine excellently with Glen Banton's crushing vocals and bass. Steve Asheim's drum fills have their impact towards the latter half of the song and add immensely to the brutality. The title track "To Hell With God" comes in at number 5, and being the longest song on the record, it aptly also succeeds in being one with the most musical variations and layers on it. It's my favorite song and should be an instant hit among fans.

"Servant Of The Enemy" serves as a great follow-up to the title song, and boasts of a mouth-watering combination of aggression and melody.The guitar harmony followed by Jack Owen and Kevin Quirion trading solos between them is quite a treat for the ears, and I can't wait to see them do it on stage. "Witness Of Death" continues this masterful composition further, and offers much of the same as what you've already heard on the previous tracks, even though the solo here succeeds in giving this song it's own identity. The following track "Angels Of Hell" builds up brilliantly to its meatiest part and doesn't relent after it does so. On the contrary, "Into The Darkness You Go" remains slow throughout, and offers an interesting change in tempo. The album closes out with "How Can You Call Yourself A God", which is amazingly intense and epic, and only Deicide can write a mere 4-minute long tune that's worthy of being called an epic.

On the whole, Deicide have come up with a crushingly brilliant tenth studio album that is sure to live up to all the hype and anticipation surrounding it's release. There are songs that I would call instant classics, like "Empowered by Blasphemy", "To Hell With God", "Servant Of The Enemy" and "How Can You Call Yourself A God", while others like "Conviction", "Witness Of Death" and "Into The Darkness You Go" have the ability to grow on the listener. When the face-smashing horde of Deicide, Belphegor, Blackguard, Neuraxis and Pathology hits North American cities in a few weeks time, I expect nothing less than mayhem on stage.

An amazingly intense, yet technically brilliant effort by one of the most shocking, controversial and brutal death metal groups on the planet. Hail Satan! \m/