Deicide - Insineratehymn [Colored]

Deicide's Insineratehymn arrived in 2000 with the Florida death metal veterans slowing their attack just enough to let the grooves hit harder, and it returns here on coloured vinyl.

The fifth Deicide album was recorded at Morrisound in Tampa, the studio that defined the Florida sound, with engineering and mixing by Jim Morris and the band producing themselves. Glen Benton handled bass and vocals, the Hoffman brothers Eric and Brian supplied the twin-guitar assault, and Steve Asheim powered it all from behind the drums. It came out on Roadrunner at a time when the band's reputation for blasphemy was as famous as their music.

At around half an hour, the album is lean and relentless. "Bible Basher" opens with the kind of blunt, chant-along hostility that made it a fixture of their live shows, and "Standing in the Flames" churns with heavy, mid-tempo menace. "Forever Hate You" is pure venom, aimed more at personal grievance than the usual targets, while "The Gift That Keeps on Giving" earned an unlikely afterlife when it turned up on The Sopranos. Benton's dual-layered growls and screams sit on top of riffs that grind rather than gallop.

It is a sturdy, underrated chapter in one of extreme metal's most notorious catalogues. Fans of the old Florida school will find plenty to headbang to.