Band:	Deicide
Album:	Once Upon The Cross
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	1995
Guest review by:	Deadmeat

01. Once Upon The Cross
02. Christ Denied
03. When Satan Rules His World
04. Kill The Christian
05. Trick Or Betrayed
06. They Are The Children Of The Underworld
07. Behind The Light Thou Shall Rise
08. To Be Dead
09. Confessional Rape

"Once Upon The Cross" is one of the greatest Anti-Christian albums metal has ever seen and surely one of the best releases from Deicide, if not the best. After this album, Deicide can surely be nominated as the most Blasphemous Death Metal band!

Musically, "Once Upon The Cross" is a smashing album with wondrous guitars and very fast drumming. (Something really interesting to be mentioned is that the speed of the songs is slower in the album compared to the speed they play them live. This happens because at first, the album's length Deicide had recorded , was only 22 minutes -insufficient duration for an album- so they had to play the songs slower to reach a 30 minutes target). The songs are very well-written and short as Raw Death metal should be. Glen Benton growls anti-Christian lyrics with more hate than ever. This guy must be the most rabid singer in the whole metal scene! The word "vice" is perfect to describe the feeling provoked when you listen to his violent screams.

And now the best / funniest thing about this album: The cover art. It is for sure the most distorted cover, someone has ever created. It shows the figure of Christ with open hands, like being on the cross, covered with a white sheet stained by blood near to his stomach. The funny thing is when you open the booklet and see what's behind this picture: Jesus crossed with his body opened and his organs ripped from it!

Generally, everything in this album is truly great, from the music and the production (which is handled from the specialist Scott Burns) to the cover art and the infernal lyrics. It would certainly be better if the length of the album was a bit longer, but this doesn't really affect it's quality.

To sum up, I don't intend to, kind of, present this album to Death metal fans, as they surely know about it. But if you are new in death metal, then you should pick up this Classic album now. "Once Upon The Cross" is a milestone for death metal!

Best songs: "Once Upon The Cross", "When Satan Rules His World", "Kill The Christian ", "Trick Or Betrayed ", "They Are The Children Of The Underworld".