If you want to continue to listen to boring, monotonous death metal, then buy this album. I cannot believe that people gave this album such a high rating. The guitar riffs are so bland and uncreative. The only thing good about the guitars here are Ralph Santolla's leads. The rhythms don't hack it. It's just tremolo picked guitar riffs mostly that don't really stick in your mind. There are some chord progressions, but not that many. Sure the production sound was decent, but Glen Benton's vocals are so monotonous more so than on the older Deicide with the Hoffman brothers in the band.

Instead of progressing, Deicide has been regressing for years now. I'm not really interested in any of the newer material. It's just flat out boring to me. Nothing very creative or well thought out. It's like whatever Steve Asheim (drums) comes up with on 'The Stench of Redemption' they just demoed it and there was no editing going on with the guitars. It seems like whatever he gives them, they just play. Best to stick with their first release, 'Legion', 'Once upon the Cross' and 'Serpents of the Light' (1992, 1995 and 1997 respectively). The newer lineup doesn't hack it and Ralph was the only musician on this album that made it good on the leads as I expressed before.

In order for death metal to be complete as an album, it has to have good guitar riffs, a variety in vocals, a decent sound production, and good quality guitar leads. The 40% rating I gave 'The Stench of Redemption' was because the only strongest parts of the album are the leads (once expressed again) and production. Deicide should have an official website. My guess is that sales of their newer stuff has declined a great deal due to the Hoffman brothers out of the band. They made Deicide the best. I've totally lost interest in the band now with their newer musicians.

So to sum it up for 'The Stench of Redemption', Deicide makes a turn for the far worst. Nothing is innovative or creative except for what Ralph put out. Why die hard Deicide fans gave this a high rating is mystifying. I don't see anything good about the music. I've even decided to auction it off. If you want to hear quality death metal, stick with the albums that I mentioned in this review. Deicide should just call it quits and without the Hoffman brothers in the band, they just suck. No creativity whatsoever. They just keep getting worse and their new release 'To Hell with God' (2011) was putrid.

Death metal bands should progress and keep putting out material that say for example Chuck from Death did. He progressed as a musician over the years and kept getting better (RIP). Deicide just got lazy over the years and 'The Stench of Redemption' has nothing musically good about it. Ralph quit the band probably because Glen is an idiot. Glen said in an interview that he hates the Hoffman brothers more than anyone in this whole world. They made the band the best to listen to and not get annoying with on the songwriting. Don't buy this album no matter what anyone tells you. A complete waste of money.

Rating: 4 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
11/02/2012 18:17