Originally written by Gregory Bradley.
When I first heard of God Dethroned, it was on their album “Ravenous”. I figured it meant ravenous as in extremely hungry, so I dismissed it until I read the lyrics. They had to do with cannibalism and absorbing the power of the one whom you just consumed, which could only mean one thing: it was based on the movie Ravenous! It was a great movie, and from then on out I was a God Dethroned fan even before I heard any music. Luckily they do rock ever so much, so never fear. God Dethroned is one of a very small percentage of bands who can actually get the blast beat thing down. Nearly all of their songs have impeccable drumming on them, with blast beats that ACTUALLY MATCH the beat of the song. So many sub-par death metal bands try to do the blast beat, but it never, EVER works because their drummers suck. The blast “beat” on their songs isn’t even a beat; it’s just a wall of noise. This sickens me. God Dethroned does it so damn well though, they have made it impossible for me to find fault with their blast beats. Along with incredibly intense drumming comes semi-melodic riffage. I’m liking the semi-melodic more and more, and bands like God Dethroned are the reason why. Semi-melodic to me is where there isn’t massive soloing or harmony, but you can actually hear a melody of some kind, not just super-crunchy distortion and a 2nd wall of noise to go along with the blast beat. They seem to embody all that is good about the brutal side of metal.
If I were to have 2 problems with this album, one would be the production. Granted, death metal doesn’t need supremely clean production, but I would have liked to have seen (I mean heard) this album be a little more cleaned up. The 2nd problem I have is the fact that every song is very similar. There are similar beats, similar riffs, similar vox, no time changes, etc. It’s like one big song. There is enough variety, however, to keep me happily grinning. As with all good albums, you need to find a few little problems to make it sound like you’re not a fanboy and that you can nitpick while still loving the album, otherwise nobody takes you seriously. The brand of pure, sweet death metal that God Dethroned excretes is glorious. There is so much that this band has to offer for death metallers. Into the Lungs of Hell is the best straight-death-metal album I’ve heard since Bloodbath’s Resurrection Through Carnage. Any fan of the genre is bound by honor to get this, and anyone looking to get more acquainted with the genre has just found an excellent starting point in Into the Lungs of Hell. It could’ve, however, done with a Megadeth cover.
