God Dethroned - Into The Lungs of Hell (2003)

*Standard pressing. Contains 8 tracks total.

Country: Netherlands
Language: English
Genre: Death Metal
Style: Blackened Death Metal
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© 2003 Metal Blade Records
Reviewed by Graham Landers for Lamb Goat.com
God Dethroned, in my best description possible, are a "tweener" band. In other words, they write some good songs, and nothing stupidly spectacular. There really isn't any borderline drawn for this band. They are just simply good. Last year's "Ravenous" album proves my point exactly. Not being familiar with this band's past "The Serpent King" of 4 years back, I can only comment on these three albums. In my eyes, "Ravenous" was more of a step in the wrong direction for this band. It certainly wasn't their finest work. I would have to say, after countless listens, that these guys finally created an album that is worth everyone's time.

Although some of their faster riffs become somewhat monotonous midway through this death ride, the majority of "Into the Lungs of Hell" is exactly what I was hoping these guys would do from the time I first heard God Dethroned. I must say that I have a certain affinity for bands that aren't afraid of slowing down their pace to ease listeners into a transition of pure blasphemy. Album opener and title track "Into the Lungs of Hell" is the slowest song these guys have written, but is definitely far from boring. The killer chorus (one that gets you singing along to this hellish jingle in no time flat) is way too uncommon these days in death metal. This is but one reason why God Dethroned are triumphant on this album.

Vocalist Henri is a mere annunciating maniac. Every syllable is just as evident as the next, where as the typical indecipherable vocals in the current scene (think Mortician) fail to leave the lasting impression that God Dethroned do. Go see these guys live, grab a hairbag by the throat and strangle him to the sound of bodies dying during "Warcult," the album's best cut. The opening pre-verse structure reminds me of Discouraged Ones era Katatonia.

Another fine point of this record is that Henri includes short blurbs of explanation, showcasing what each song's lyrics are about. This is mainly a hardcore thing although Nile did do a similar concept with their latest album. One thing I would suggest in the future is to get some good looking artwork and someone that knows how to put a respectable layout together. The artwork throughout, for lack of a better word, sucks. Amazingly enough, they outdid themselves this time around with an eyesore of a layout to boot. The CD face art looks great and it's a wonder why they didn't go with something more hellish in theme for the cover art. They easily could've picked a better tit shot to showcase in their liner notes as well. But either way you look at it, it's a tit shot nonetheless and they are autographed!

Bottom line: God Dethroned's potential has finally been reached with "Into the Lungs of Hell." Not so much a landmark album by any means, but definitely their finest to date. Unfortunately I only received half of this double-CD, so in a way I feel like I have lost somehow. The bonus disc contains live video footage from their 2000 tour with Hate Eternal and Cannibal Corpse. Like I said earlier, these guys are flawless live so I can only imagine how valuable this extra CD would be to any death metal such as myself. To make a long story short, God Dethroned is a good band, but not quite great.

tags: god dethroned, into the lungs of hell, 2003, flac,