GOD DETHRONED - "INTO THE LUNGS OF HELL" (METAL BLADE)
GOD DETHRONED - "INTO THE LUNGS OF HELL" (METAL BLADE)
I have known God Dethroned ever since before the days of "The Christhunt". Back then they didn't really enchant me, or captivate me, whatever. Their music lacked the oft-mentioned magic ingredient. It was loud, it was fast, but it wasn't interesting. That changed with the amazingly captivating "Bloody Blasphemy" - silly image, grammatical errors and childish title song subject notwithstanding. On its heels came "Ravenous", which was a cool CD in its own right but nothing close to its predecessor.
I am very glad to see that "Into the Lungs of Hell" has taken a step back (or forward) to the quality of "Bloody Blasphemy". It's not that they have sought to duplicate the album, it's just that it has more of that magic ingredient (a poor reviewer's eternal excuse?). Although still sonically very unrelenting, "Into the Lungs of Hell" is in a way more melodic - like "Bloody Blasphemy" - than "Ravenous". It also comes across as much faster in general; though many said "Ravenous" was much faster than "Bloody Blasphemy", to me it didn't come across as such. On the latest there's "The Warcult", for example, which is a lightning fast song, as is "Soul Sweeper". But there's not just speed, there's also plenty of very cool riffing - i.e. cool death metal songwriting. "Subliminal" is one of those tracks, for example, as are "The Tombstone" and "Gods of Terror". If there is one main nagging point of negativity to this album it's the lyrics. These seem a lot more repetitive than they've ever been before. "The Tombstone" is a good example where the title is just sung (and, obviously, we're talking death metal here, I am using the word in the most elasti-flexibally broad sense of the word) over and over again.
Still, if extreme death metal with very tight blast beats and some insane guitar riffs is your required listening fodder, "Into the Lungs of Hell" is just what the gourmet ordered.
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RK
Written February 2003