|
|
|
|
I really enjoyed the “Forever Underground” album that these yankees delivered some years ago, but after listening to “Dechristianize” I felt very disappointed. An extreme cover art, with Jesus Christ being defeated and things like that, it´s not enough, that´s absolutely childish, men... why don´t you try to use your imagination to create good music instead of posing allegedly anti-Christian stances? Why don´t you concentrate on MUSIC? Because that´s what I miss here, the music itself! I thought everything was around the songs; that cover art and lyrics were in a second place (despite being also important, of course). But Vital Remains seem to be more interested in being satanic and include “extreme” lyrics and topics rather than play worthwhile, interesting music. First of all, there´s something absolutely scandalous: the guys of Vital Remains really think that using Carl Orff´s “Carmina Burana” (you know, the popular “O fortuna” passage) is still original nowadays, and they´ve been shameless enough to include it in the album intro... quite pathetic and trendy... Apart from this weak detail, the album, what can we find on it? Well, the vocal duties have been taken by mr. Glen Benton from Deicide, as a session musician. I doubt if the casting to choose the best voice was very serious, since I think there are thousands of singers a million times better than Benton. But, oh yeah, if you want to be tough, dangerous and heretic, it´s a good idea to request the monotonous, uni-dimensional growlings from the singer of a respected and traditionally anti-Christian band as Deicide is. And if we add the fact that many Deicide fans will probably buy a copy of “Dechristianize”, the masterplan is utterly justified. Uh, the music, I´ve been unleashing one of my diatribes... well, the music is death metal the brutal way, with the typical influences from Deicide and Morbid Angel here and there, but guitarist Dave Suzuki has been listening to too many virtuoso guitar lines from heavy metal bands, and his progression with the six strings had to be conveyed in this album, apparently. Therefore, in this album we can stumble over quite a few solos in the vein of classic heavy metal, something that doesn´t fit at all in the music of Vital Remains. To mix clean guitar solos the heavy way with brutal death metal is not very original by itself, indeed the result is not convincing. Some other points as the excessive length of the songs, or the ultra boring voice from Benton, contribute to make “Dechristianize” an average album that Vital Remains shouldn´t have recorded if they wanted to be considered as a leading death metal band. A step backwards, clearly!
| Tracklist |
| 1. Let The Killing Begin |
| 2. Dechristianize |
| 3. Infidel |
| 4. Devoured Elysium |
| 5. Savior To None Failure For All |
| 6. Unleash Hell |
| 7. Rush Of Deliverance |
| 8. At War With God |
| 9. Entwined By Vengence |
: 60.40
| Buy other Vital Remains albums |
