Band:	God Dethroned
Album:	Ravenous
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	2001

01. Swallow The Spikes
02. The Poison Apple (Eve And Serpentio In The Garden Of Eden)
03. Villa Vampiria
04. Consumed By Darkness [Macabre End cover]
05. The Mysteries That Make You Bleed
06. The Iconoclast Deathride
07. The Crown For The Morbid
08. Ravenous
09. Autumn Equinox/Winter Campaign 2002 (Part I)
10. Autumn Equinox/Winter Campaign 2002 (Part II)
11. Evil Dead [Death cover]

If you?ve ever wondered what Slayer's Reign in Blood would have sounded like if it was death metal you have two choices. You could listen to one of the infinitely numerous ?Angel of Death? or ?Raining Blood? covers, or you listen to this album. Yes, this is death metal, but the song structures and rhythms are very often very akin to those of thrash metal, especially Slayer. This similarity is only magnified ten fold by God Dethroned's use of melodic leads that a times sound like they could have come right off a Slayer album, both in structure and tone. This at once makes them innovators and copycats. Copycats because they take a lot from another, more famous band, and innovators as this creates a sound not often heard in death metal, and I must say, I like it A LOT.

Now in fairness, for the most part, they have changed the formula enough to put their own stamp on it, thus keeping themselves from being a heavier carbon copy. The one time where it does sound like a carbon copy, however, is the song ?Villa Vampiria? Now, in all honesty is one of my favorites on the album, however, it is also the one that brings the comparison to Slayer to the forefront of your mind, and if it were not for this song, I may have never made the connection, and might have been calling them musical geniuses right now.

This band literally has everything I enjoy about metal: aggression, groove, melody, a good bit of brutality, enough atmosphere to make many a black metal bands jealous, and heaviness galore.

Unfortunately, as I?ve already made evident, is that they're not without flaws. While their greatest area of trouble may be the almost too obvious Slayer worship, at times they also seem to lose a bit of control over their songs. You sense that the songs just want to take off uncontrollably, and while they never completely do so, you get the impression that the band has to use all their strength to properly restrain them. However, all they really need to do to overcome this is become a little bit tighter as a band during some of the faster, rhythmic sections. When they are playing tightly, they have complete mastery over their music, and that is clearly evident.

The bottom line, however, is that this is some of the best death metal I?ve heard in a long time. If they are able to further distinguish their sound, make it completely their own, and gain a bit more control over it, they will have earned a place among the death metal elite. If you pride yourself in enjoying music, then you cannot pass this one up.