God Dethroned release their 5th studio album in a lame-looking digipak (and lame booklet art, made with PhotoShop, again). If death or thrash metal is your stuff, don't mind the graphics here! No wonder the digipak looks like it's made fast, since the original good looking cover has a picture of burning city. Still, it's the music that matters.

Starting surprisingly slow with an epic title song, it is clear, that 'Into the Lungs of Hell' needs a few spins... The songs are a few in number, but there is enough material for any metal album. The album is wide enough in musical spectrum, but still holds together fantastically, even though thrashy 'Slaughtering the Faithful' sounds a bit like an outsider. One can hear different shades of death metal (from doomy to blast beat stuff), heavy metal, thrash metal, wonderful melodic lead work, admirable drumming, actually anything that would make a great metal album. Yes, it's more varying again (remember their more basic death metal album 'Ravenous' [2001]?). Speed doesn't mean brutality, but there are some fast songs. I feel that this is a bit similar to some of the better "newer" records from Hypocrisy (like classic 'Abduction' [1996]). Still, it is all God Dethroned, since they have their style, no doubt about it when hearing that bluesy lead guitar tone. Their black metal influences (there's some on 'The Grand Grimoire' (1997), you can't deny that) aren't present here.

Musicianship is extremely high within the band. New skins-basher Ariën van Weesenbeek brings so much energy into the playing and his beats are truly fantastic in speed and precision, if not truly original. Guitar duo Henri (also main growled vocals, sometimes pretty close to Carcass' Jeff Walker) and Jens are magnificent and very metal indeed. Bassist Beef also does provide some growling. The sound is organic and balanced. No studio tricks or anything. Henrik Larsson recorded this in Berno Studios, Malmö, Sweden. Good-sounding stuff, but so are a lot of nowadays' albums. However, this sounds simply timeless, almost retro in a good way. The lyrics are usual stuff; death, war, modern society, religions. One line's funnily close to a certain 1980s pop song here: "every move you make, every step you take" (The Police, perhaps)!

Bonus disc is a good treat for any God Dethroned fan. Live sounds bootlegged and videos (promotional videos of 'Villa Vampiria' and 'Under the Golden Wings of Death' are included) have quite a bad picture quality, not to mention simply insignificant information provided on a multimedia part. But this is like a part of 'The Ancient Ones' (2000) included for free! A good bargain, for sure.

Now, after various spins given, I can assure you, that once again God Dethroned have created a record, that I find extremely good. It differs from their back catalogue, but never too much. Varying material, memorable songs, somewhat retro in its atmosphere, bloody great metal feel throughout the album. The band does rule, I love the album. Another bloody massacre!!!

Rating: 8½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/12/2003 12:24