Deicide - Till Death Do Us Part
May 16 2008 at 03:24:34 AM  The end? Baldung Grien never looked so hideous as when affixed to this haggard and half-hearted collection of tracks. No longer propped up by Ralph Santolla's rote but undeniably appealing guitar work, unable to tour due to personal and legal conflicts and having exhausted all the mystery, aura and publicity stunts that help turn a low-life purse snatcher into a sub-cultural icon, Deicide releases its tenth and hopefully final album this month, painting a more dispiriting portrait of squalor and decay than the entire German renaissance could have ever dreamed of producing. Written and performed entirely on autopilot by drummer Steve Asheim, with what might generously be called guest appearances by Santolla and Cannibal Corpse guitarist Jack Owens, Till Death Do Us Part plays as the sonic equivalent of a straight line; a mechanical, altogether lifeless affair conveying the sense that, if this really is Deicide's last, no one really gives too much of a shit anyway. Save for Asheim's drumming, it's arguable whether even he and front man Glen Benton need have attended the recording sessions, with the latter's tin crunching vox already sounding a little more than digitally "enhanced" at this point. With painfully out of touch notions as to what equates to even passable "brutality" (Asheim's use of the tritone is akin to a 13-year-old who just bought his first guitar) rhythmic patterns falling back on past tragedies (compare "Hate of All Hatreds" with "This Is Hell We're In"), and lyrics that continue to read like a divorcees' obscene voice mails doubling as unholy blasphemies, the album evokes not the sublime chaos of Legion but the stale, dispassionate and bewildering sendoff of In Torment in Hell (but with an actual budget). This time, however, it's the fans that get fucked and not the record label, which has already wrung enough dollars out of the group these last few years to walk away happy. Plus, there's always that autobiography waiting in the wings. Be not proud. [Todd DePalma] Comments (0)
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