One of the first death metal bands I ever listened to was Deicide. I first discovered them around 2004, around the same time Scars of the Crucifix came out. I watched the music video they made for the title track and was immediately blown away by how blasphemous and evil the music was. That inspired me to listen to their entire discography. I've lost count of how many times I've listened to “Dead by Dawn”. I listened through their entire discography, but I still wasn't satisfied. I wanted more. I did some searching online and discovered that Glen Benton was in a band called Vital Remains. I acquired their album Dechristianize (the only album of theirs that I could easily find) and was utterly amazed by what I heard.
The album begins with a clip from the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told paired with the awesome sounds of “O Fortuna” by Carl Orff. Its terrifying epicness is the perfect precursor for the brutality that is to come. When the track reaches its climax and the dust settles, you hear those sweet, sweet words: “LET THE KILLING BEGIN!!!!!”
Since Glen Benton is the star of this show, I'm gonna start off with the vocals. Simply put, they're fucking brutal. His deep, monstrous growls are far more terrifying than his past work with Deicide, and his screams sound downright demonic, especially that glorious moment on “Devoured Elysium” where he utters one of the greatest lines in all of metal: “GOD YOU FUCKING WHORE!”. After this album, Glen Benton went back to Deicide and made them far more brutal. I know this sounds like a stretch, but you might just say that Dechristianize was Glen Benton's Pulp Fiction. This was the album that revitalized his languishing career, the same way Pulp Fiction revitalized John Travolta's languishing career.
The instrumentation is absolutely superb. Dave Suzuki's drumming is fast, aggressive, and utterly unrelenting. The blast beats are almost constant, and some of the beats can be quite complex at times, such as on the title track and “At War with God”. Some people complain that the snare is too loud and the double bass sounds too triggered. I've listened to this album many times, and they don't seem to trouble me at all.
The drums put on an impressive performance, but Dave Suzuki is a guitarist first and foremost, and it was his fretwork that amazed me the most. The rhythmic riffs are dark and ferocious, like demonic fires that are engulfing the trinity, but in between all this blasphemous riffing are grand and majestic lead guitar melodies that have a profound neoclassical structure to them. Just listen to the break at the 2:30 mark of the title track to see what I mean. Or better yet, listen to “Rush of Deliverance”. One minute you're banging your head to vicious blast beats, and the next minute your ears are graced by a powerful and melodic guitar solo that reaches up into the sky as if to strike at the walls of heaven. These melodic moments manage to be far more beautiful and display far more skill that a large majority of bands that call themselves melodic death metal. Make no mistake, the album is still brutal as fuck, but it's these melodic moments that help make the album all the more memorable.
Dechristianize is seriously one of the greatest death metal albums ever made. The drums are furious, complex, and unrelenting. The guitars are both vicious and beautiful. Glen Benton gives what is easily the finest performance in his life. It combines melody and brutality in a way that doesn't feel forced or contrived. I just love everything about this album. It ranks right up there with Altars of Madness and The Sound of Perseverance as one of my all-time favorite death metal albums. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the genre. I guarantee you'll love it.
Best tracks: fucking all of them, but my personal favorites are “Devoured Elysium”, “Savior to None, Failure for All”, “Rush of Deliverance”, and “Entwined by Vengeance”.
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