Extreme metal melting pot God Dethroned are one of the fronting figures of their trade. Already in their early life, the band began to mix death metal, thrash metal and black metal into sickly catchy metal of God Dethroned.

The seventh full length studio work 'The Toxic Touch' sticks to the roots, but also takes a few steps ahead. However, the directions the band have now moved are quite obvious to anyone who have followed this band. This is the most melodic album from the band to date. Thankfully, the melodies bear God Dethroned trademark. Together with Henri Sattler's (also guitar) recognizable growled voice the melodiousness makes the music easily identified. The band itinerate between chastisements such as 'Hating Life', 'Falling down' and 'Macabre World' to moody pieces eg. the song 5 to 7 and 'Typhoid Mary', that hark back to 'Bloody Blasphemy' (1999) and 'The Grand Grimoire' (1997) albums. The moodier departments is the band's stronger side in my opinion.

The band succeed to surprise too seldom, as beautiful and mellow, even though pretty familiar instrumental 'Away from Emptiness' happens to be one of those very rare occasions. God Dethroned stand, and they can stand with their heads up (remember those trademarks), in the triangle of Arch Enemy, new Kreator and Hypocrisy. Especially the synth work, which stays on the background, reminds me heavily of Hypocrisy. Just try 'Macabre World' and hear it for yourselves! Anyway, there's a few gems ('2014', 'On the Wings of Pestilence', 'The Day You Died' and 'Typhoid Mary'), but a couple pretty average pieces in GD standards ('Falling down' and 'Macabre World'), which make this another good and decent God Dethroned album, but the band bears potential for so much more.

One can't find anything to blame about the playing. Especially the vivid drumming and lead guitar work are the things I like a lot. The production can be depicted easily: organic and fucking hammering = intense! Abso-fucking-lutely awesome work by Jörg Uken, who doesn't ring any bells to tell the truth. Remember the name after this. Indeed, a wise decision by the band. Cover art is kept simple, but still there's some ugly PhotoShop filters used... Vocals vary from suicidal tendencies to drugs to predictions of the end of mankind.

The limited 1st edition slipcase includes a bonus DVD of live set of nine songs captured at Germany's Summer Breeze 2005. Even it's a cheapo, with clear picture but crippled sound (lacks bass), it's surely a nice extra for the fans. Thankfully, we are almost completely spared from those evil MPG format flicks nowadays... By the way, this extra doesn't affect to score.

So, another goodie from God Dethroned. Maybe my expectations were a tad high when I read the band's comments about this work, but I must say that those "average" songs are beginning to open with time. It's possible, that God Dethroned are the best band of their ilk, which is melodic yet skullfucking metal. Now give me another dose, guys!

Rating: 8+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/21/2006 21:23