review by: Roberto Martinelli

Death metal heads take note. If you're into pummeling material that's well constructed and played to a high degree of skill, you'll be very pleased with Vital Remains' latest album.

This band seems to fall apart and then reconstruct itself with each passing record. As always, founding member Tony Lazaro can be found on guitars. Handling all the other instrumental duties is Dave Suzuki, who, if memory serves me correctly, just played drums and sometimes bass on past albums. Not only is Suzuki's drumming super, but his leads are as well. Taking over vocal duties from the guy who was on the last record is none other than Glen Benton of Deicide fame. His vocals sound excellent here, but might have been a little better if he had more variety to his delivery.

The songs are on the long side for the style, being at least six minutes and as long as 10, but have quite a few good riffs per track. As can be expected, the pace is fast and brutal, but Vital Remains eases off on the kill switch to present some tasty melodies and interesting solos that are atypical to this kind of music. There appears to have been a good deal of effort into structuring the songs, and the title track, the best on the disk, is the best example.

The production is very clear, almost to a fault. The drums, which provide an almost constant double bass foundation for various overlying hand patters, are the main culprits in making the material often numbing. A more organic sounding production and some more variety of kick drum patterns might have helped here. The guitars and bass sound good. Still, if you don't mind near constant pummeling that has depth to it, you'll definitely like this record.

Some points may be deducted in your personal case if the rehashing of anti-Christian lyrics and vocals, which Benton and co. have been repeating for almost 15 years, are becoming tiresome. Focusing on the lyrics and themes of Dechristianize reveals a band that is totally running through the death metal lyric image motions, and this unfortunately does detract some from the end product.

I hesitate to call this the best Vital Remains yet. I seem to think Into Cold Darkness is better, only because of the darker, more organic and evil atmosphere of the record. Dechristianize's material is certainly better than the overrated Dawn of the Apocalypse, and far more interesting than Forever Underground. It's a close call. It's good to hear some modern US death metal whose purpose has a bit more to it than constant speed and technicality. (7.5/10)

review by: Jason Thornberry

Dechristianize begins innocently enough. Chanting monks set up the first tune just after a rainstorm, and you’ve already got the feeling things are going to get creepy. I can’t recall the name of the tune their humming, but it’s in every other horror film made in the past twenty-five years. Not only that, but the cover shows Jesus H. Christ being nudged by centurions whilst trying to mind his own business, and get on with being crucified to a pentagram in hell, or at least San Bernardino.

Glen Benton is the singer of Vital Remains, so without being a total dickhead, I’m guessing there’ll be blastbeats galore with his vocals slightly up in the mix, growling up a storm about beheaded prophets and all that jazz. I’m not cheating either, I’ve actually turned this off, and am just guessing, so if Dechristianize ends up sounding like Teenage Fanclub, my apologies to Glen and his son Master Satan Spawn, the Caco-Daemon.

Fuuuck! I was right. Apparently I’m the only one who likes a little variation in metal. This album gets its point across, but only if you’ve never ever heard Deicide, Bathory, or Venom, although Venom at least had a sense of humor. Dechristianize is like being chased by the same nasal-sounding hornet for a decade. (5/10)