Band:	God Dethroned
Album:	The Toxic Touch
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	October 20, 2006
Guest review by:	White Winter Sun

Disc I
01. Faithless
02. Hating Life
03. 2014
04. Falling Down
05. On Wings Of Pestilence
06. The Day You Died
07. Away From Emptiness
08. Macabre World
09. Typhoid Mary
10. Fail To Exist
11. Bleeding Mirrors [Japanese bonus]

Disc II [DVD]
01. Nihilism
02. Boiling Blood
03. The War Cult
04. Villa Vampiria
05. Sigma Enigma
06. The Art Of Immolation
07. Salt In Your Wounds
08. Soul Sweeper
09. Serpent King

Holland death metallers God Dethroned are back with their seventh studio album, entitled "The Toxic Touch", which was recorded and mixed at the Soundlodge Studio in Leer (Germany) by Jörg Uken (www.soundlodge.de) and mastered by Darius van Helfteren at Wisseloord Mastering Studio (Holland). This new effort features two new members, who joined after the 2004 album, entitled "The Lair Of The White Worm". God Dethroned doesn't seem to have lost its identity even after Henk "Henke" Zinger (bass) and Isaac Delahave (guitars) have joined the band. On the contrary, the God Dethroned members have created a powerful statement with this album, evolving musically and bringing something quite different to all their previous releases.

After only one listening, the first impression is the musical evolution on this new album. God Dethroned have toned down the speed a tad, turned up the melody, giving to this latest release a Gothenburg melodic death metal sound. As I said, the tempo is more slow compared to their previous efforts, but still extreme, full of aggressiveness - plenty of blast beats and waves of crushing guitar riffs. Isaac's and Henri's guitar work is impressive and ranges from simple but effective thrash riffs to more complex riffs and solos, giving to "The Toxic Touch" a large panel of variations, both musically and emotionally, on songs like "Hating Life", "On Wings Of Pestilence" or "Typhoid Mary". One of the more brutal songs from the album is "Macabre World", a track containing raging guitar riffs, killer vocals, blast beats, but always with a melodic side as the whole album. "The Toxic Touch" also contains the atmospheric instrumental song "Away From Emptiness" which defines God Dethroned's sound evolution well - more mid-tempo and melodic. The other important point of "The Toxic Touch" is that the new orientation of the band doesn't focus only on the music, but shows in the themes too. Lyrics show a tendency to move away from the classical anti-Christian odes and focus on more social and personal subjects, showing that God Dethroned is trying to refresh their ideas and their whole style.

With "The Toxic Touch", God Dethroned are even more determined to intoxicate us with their sound by presenting speedy riffs with high quality death metal vocals, accompanied by melodic parts, obsessive groove and catchy moments. "The Toxic Touch" is still brutal enough, but the songs are much catchier with fewer blast beats and more groove, compared to the band's previous work. That might disappoint die-hard fans, but on the other hand, their sound's evolution leads to a more accessible album and possibly to a wider audience.

Highlights: 'Hating Life', 'On Wings Of Pestilence', 'Away From Emptiness' and 'Macabre World'.