Deicide - Scars Of The Crucifix review
| Band: | Deicide |
| Album: | Scars Of The Crucifix |
| Style: | Death metal |
| Release date: | February 24, 2004 |
| A review by: | jupitreas |
Disc I
01. Scars Of The Crucifix
02. Mad At God
03. Conquered By Sodom
04. Fuck Your God
05. When Heaven Burns
06. Enchanted Nightmare
07. From Darkness Come
08. Go Now Your Lord Is Dead
09. The Pentecostal
Disc II [DVD - limited edition bonus]
+ Behind The Scars - Under The Skin Of Deicide
Back in the late 70's and early 80's there was an especially infamous branch of Italian horror cinema - the cannibal movies. They were all pretty much the same, they were all ugly and brutal and they all relied on very similar filming techniques. By far the two most 'famous' movies from that niche genre are "Cannibal Holocaust" and "Cannibal Ferox". Nonetheless, "Cannibal Holocaust" was actually an art house film, with a clever message and some daring ideas. Fine, it had very detailed scenes depicting an abortion, impalement by the vagina, castration, chopping off a guy's leg etc., however, these scenes appeared there for a reason. The film revitalized Montaigne's thoughts and put them in a 20th Century setting. It asked some important questions and broke some barriers. Basically, although shocking and violent, it was a good movie. On the other hand, "Cannibal Ferox" was just vile. The movie lacked any sort of deeper message or artistic value and was just an exercise in mindless violence. Its only claim to infamy is that it was banned in 31 countries (or something like that).
Now then, you might be wondering why is it that i am going on and on about these movies in what is supposed to be a Deicide review. Well, you see - Deicide is the sonic equivalent of "Cannibal Ferox".
Every song on this album is exactly the same. Its all your run-of-the-mill brutal death metal with all the typical, overused elements which constitute the style. I mean I cannot imagine even a fan of this band would be able to tell which song is playing if I were to randomly choose one and bombard his ears with it... Its all so formulaic it could be written by a damn machine!
Although for me this album deserves a score no higher than a 0, I suppose I'll have to cut Deicide some slack in order to be objective. Fine - the musicians are proficient and the production is very good. As a matter of fact, if you like brutal music, the album sounds quite fun at the very beginning. You're thinking - "Oh my, this sounds sufficiently aggressive and evil, I wonder how it'll develop from here". Unfortunately, it doesn't develop. After the third song it simply gets boring. The way bands are supposed to deal with the monotony inherently present in death metal is by introducing some interesting new ways of playing instead of recycling old ones and by making some sense out of their music. Some bands have insightful lyrics while others are consciously funny. Some explore new musical territories or use melody or a sense of groove. Deicide lacks all of these things. Benton still writes his childish tirades about how much he hates God and seriously - if this stuff still shocks you then there must be something wrong with you. We've only been hearing lyrics like these for the last 20 years, right?
Deicide is what gives Death Metal a bad name. In the end, the biggest plus of this album is that it only lasts 26 minutes. Any longer and I would probably consider what Benton failed to do at 33. There is no place for such repetitive rubbish in my life.
 | Written on 21.03.2004 by With Metal Storm since 2002, jupitreas has been subjecting the masses to his reviews for quite a while now. He lives in Warsaw, Poland, where he does his best to avoid prosecution for being so cool. |
Comments
| Hamird Lieutenant Posts: 2564  |
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| Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955  |
Before I listen to the album I've never thought that I would agree with the review. Your absolutly right, it is just ''mindless violence'', there is no meaning, feeling or artistic message. Nothing. The song titles sucks, ''Mad at God''?!?! Whata hell! But the unoriginal and stupid theme would'nt matter if the music was ok. It's all the same thing, a repeated amount of riffs and drums with a nice vocalist. The analogy with the ''Cannibal's'' movies fitted very well. Holocaust is a classic, I didn't watch Ferox, but it looks like I should stay away.
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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| Hamird Lieutenant Posts: 2564 |
Written by Uirapuru on 25.04.2009 at 20:34 Cannibal Holocaust is a piece of horror art.. But Cannibal Ferox is one of the most meaningless and stupid horror movies that you would ever seen.
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| Cryzpin Posts: 113  |
The album really sucks, but to say "Deicide is what gives Death Metal a bad name." puts authors opinion at the same level = simplistic and full of shit.
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| vezzy Stallmanite Posts: 3493  |
Written by Cryzpin on 29.07.2010 at 15:13 It's a six year old review, his opinion has probably changed.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| jupitreas hi-fi / lo-life Staff Posts: 6659  |
Written by vezzy on 29.07.2010 at 15:21 This particular album by Deicide is still what gives DM a bad name and AT THE TIME when this was released, it seemed like there was no way Deicide could improve at this point. But they did and I even reviewed the EP that marked their improvement. All things exist in some kind of context.
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675  |
Written by [user id=28338] on 29.07.2010 at 15:35 IMO those two albums are poles apart in quality. "In Torment In Hell" is undoubtedly the worst album Deicide ever made. There's not a single memorable song on it. Its extremely boring to listen to. "Scars Of The Crucifix" is a far better album, with better riffs, and catchier songs. There is some filler, but the good songs are classic Deicide. There's not a single song on ITIH that Id class as great, or memorable. Even "Incinerathymn" had a small amount of good moments. ITIH has none whatsoever. To those moaning about the lyrics, geez its Deicide for crying out loud, what do you expect? lol
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| Cryzpin Posts: 113 |
Written by jupitreas on 29.07.2010 at 15:45 Well, now it's "This particular album by Deicide is..." while in review the statement was "Deicide is what gives Death Metal a bad name." - see the difference right? Is it really neccessary for fans to kick in the falling band and spit on them when they have crossed the peak, lost the vision (Legion), get older and just try to make some more money? Btw >50% of all bands in extreme music goes this way.
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675 |
Written by Cryzpin on 30.07.2010 at 12:10 "Scars Of The Crucifix" is no "Legion", but its definitely a good album, and easily their best since "Serpents Of The Light".
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| jupitreas hi-fi / lo-life Staff Posts: 6659 |
Written by Cryzpin on 30.07.2010 at 12:10 As I said, back in 2004, the original statement made sense since there was no indication that the band was going to rebound. Also - poor, sensitive Mr. Benton 
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| Deadmeat Necrobutcher Posts: 2437  |
Well i disagree with the review. this album is not a piece of shit. it has some nice songs, as "scars of the crucifix" and "conquered by sodom" (i know you've mentioned them, but i say these these 2 songs imoo are good and not only acceptable). also: yeah, deicide is all about "100000 ways to fuck god from the ass" but come on they are not scary cause they werent scary imo. they have never been scary. what is shocking about them is imo some of their album covers as the one in "once upon the cross". and right, deicide in this album are not on their best but really this album is not that awfull. at least i enjoyed it fairly enough. it is not a masterpiece, it doesnt have anything new to offer but it is deicide. it's exactly these same thing that slayer fan say: "it's fucking slayer, what would you expect?"...
---- Υou've sold your human essence to the cold world of dead and empty things... You're SOLD!
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| Baz Anderson Staff Posts: 13254  |
A bit of mindless violence is what I look for in music sometimes. Still, other bands have done it better than this album - although this is one of my favourites of Decide.
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| Haiwaan Das Posts: 84  |
Actually, in the first Round with songs like "Scars of Cruxifix" I thought it would be hell of a boxing match, but Jesus Knocked Benton FLAAAT as the song "Mad at God" starts.
---- Gr Gr Gr Gr Gr
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| Moosh666 Posts: 132  |
Written by [user id=28338] on 29.07.2010 at 17:15 Breakdowns have been around well before coreshit you ignorant dumbass, try listening to Suffocation or some Morbid Angel songs and fucking say that again.
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| belphegor666 Posts: 33  |
Fuck the reviews...i don't give a damn what the reviews are saying ? you know how many good albums i lost because of the reviews??? countless. For me this album is a grinder...not a piece of shit... DEICIDE fucking rules ... 
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