Deicide: Serpents of the Light

Review by Rotwang

Ahh...the new album from Deicide. What can I say, besides "SHEER FUCKING BRUTALITY!" As always, Deicide has distiguished itself from the usual crowd of death metal wanna-be's. Time after time, again and again, Deicide has proven themselves to be the unrivaled overlords of American death metal. On "Serpents of the Light," their most recent release (and their first in two years), Deicide has continued this hard-to-maintain legacy with a technically clean, surprisingly melodic release that, at the same time, doesn't sacrifice the brutality. Steve Asheim's drums thump and rattle in an almost military-sounding march beat (much faster, of course), beautifully complimenting Eric Hoffman's melodic guitar riffs that expel all of the evil that you'd expect from a Deicide album. Meanwhile, Brian Hoffman's guitar crunches and grinds to lay down the anger and wrath Glen Benton's voice and pulsating bass. I must say that this is a wonderful release, destined to achieve legendary status in the metal scene. My only complaint for this album is that, at just over thirty minutes, it is much too short, even for a Deicide album. But, Serpents of the Light still oozes with terror that should please even the most jaded metal fan.