Babalon’s Bands I - The Dutch Masters (God Dethroned)
I know everyone has a bone to pick about a band they think deserves more credit, but I want you to know - every time someone makes a list about the greatest Dutch Death Metal acts and doesn't include God Dethroned, a tulip wilts. Not only that but a heavily tattooed Polish man in New York cries and yells at his computer. But I get ahead of myself.
God Dethroned is a Dutch band hailing from Beilen-a town Wikipedia has assured me exists but I cannot verify this information. About a year and ten months after their demo, Christ Hunt, the band released their debut album called The Christhunt. Except for adding an article and removing a space to make it a much more memorable title, the debut of God Dethroned already gives a hint of what was to come. Whereas their countrymen, Asphyx, appropriately feel almost hammer-like and blunt, God Dethroned's power lies in the polar opposite. They have this Black-Thrash sharpness to them that would place them as comfortably alongside Nifelheim as Possessed.
The band was perhaps in its infancy but lead composer and vocalist Henri Sattler had already started showing his distinct writing style. Might ruffle some feathers here but in my heart, this early day evolution hit its apex with Grand Grimoire. Coming out a whole 5 years and a reunion (or as Metallica would call it, 20 seasons) after their debut, The Grand Grimoire showcases the band hitting their sweet spot. It's where the band first found their optimal footing. Henri's infectious and massive melodies interwoven with breakneck but unique rhythms sound like a cavalry charge.
Two years later, in 1999, the band began releasing material more frequently. They rounded out their early years with another stone cold classic, Bloody Blasphemy. Many of they whose feathers were ruffled a mere 6-7 lines ago would hold up The Christhunt and Bloody Blasphemy as counterarguments to my use of the word "apex." But they're wrong because my taste is better than theirs. That aside, the quality is consistent enough that really, it's mostly a matter of which melodies speak to you the most. It really is almost like judging parts of a painting.
When I said "more frequently" you probably imagined that I was implying their next releases are not as good, but that is not the case. While neither Ravenous nor Into The Lungs of Hell improve upon the first three records and the latter has the cover of a Doom 3D expansion pack, both records feel like they make the band's discography more robust and complete. Both contain many crucial tracks like “Villa Vampiria” and “The Warcult,” but I'd say Into the Lungs of Hell is the first God Dethroned record that doesn't feel wholly indispensable. It's good, but not the imagination sparking goodness that came before or after.
Key after. So A year after Lungs..., the band would release The Lair of the White Worm. The band’s 2004 opus is a masterclass on how to make blackened death metal catchy while maintaining its identity. While The Lair of the White Worm is what I imagine a pornstar calls his jeans, the band use this record to cast us out into fresh waters. The production is more modern but the razor-like sharpness is unmistakeable and relentless. If the first few records had that Morbid Angel sprawl, this album is the early Emperor answer. The scenic playing is larger than life and the drums tastefully serve as the guitar's engine.
To Lair... was borne The Toxic Touch. It is very much the Bloody Blasphemy to Lair's The Grand Grimoire. An excellent followup that, while not revolutionizing the band's sound on the former, extends their repertoire and brings some further stone cold classics to the table. Yes I like the term stone cold classic, sue me.
The next big shakeup was on 2009's Passiondale and here things get complicated. This time the shakeup is lyrical and thematic. God Dethroned put on their pickelhaube (yes I know that's a German helmet and they're Dutch and neutral, relax) and went to the early 1920s. Passiondale itself is one of my favorite albums about World War I and is really a better representation of that conflict than all of the great many we've seen recently. The band's music evokes the grime, the moments of bravery and the ubiquitous death with a faithfulness that matches the fantastic Hail of Bullets and their WWII related releases.
But, to my mind, Passiondale also led the band down the road to its two worst albums, Under the Sign of the Iron Cross and The World Ablaze. The biggest sin of these two albums is that they both feel like waddling. The wealth of imagination and passion (dale) that brought the band to where it was on Passiondale is frankly just absent. If the former felt like grim and poignant storytelling, the latter two feel like the dry documentary version.
I was very disappointed, but then in 2020, I was busy one day trying to decide what shows I wasn't going to when the band hit out with Illuminati. This Jay-Z based concept album is proof that when the band is driven, they can drop apex level music whenever they feel like it. Where do I even start? The guitar work showcases an entirely new side to the band. While still possessing the famous melodies, the rhythms on this record sound lumbering and gigantic. The band delves into all kinds of interesting topics lyrically and doing them justice was always going to be a challenge. They meet this challenge, and fuckin' A, they keep going. The grandeur they manage to bestow on songs like the title track, "Gabriel" and "Eye of Horus" shows, in my humble opinion, why God Dethroned and Henri cannot be left out of any conversations about the Dutch masters. Right up there next to Asphyx, Pestilence, Rembrandt and most importantly, stroopwaffles.
Their new single, "Asmodevs" drops today, and so help me god (dethroned,) I will print this piece on stone tablets and throw them at venues until they get a full fledged US tour.
