Rating: 8.0

Country: USA

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Century Media

Track list:
1.Where is Your God Now
2.Icons of Evil
3.Scorned
4.Born to Rape the World
5.Reborn.. The Upheavel of Nihility
6.Hammer Down the Nails
7.Shrapnel Embedded Flesh
8.'Till Death
9.In Infamy
10.Disciples of Hell


Band Website: Vital Remains

Vital Remains - Icons of Evil

Glen Benton - Vocals
Tony Lazaro - Guitars, Bass
Dave Suzuki - Drums, Guitars

God sucks. Yeah, you heard me. Jesus sucks too. OK, that's the lyrical side of this album quite thoroughly dissected, so lets move on to the music shall we? Well, the lyrics are actually quite well written, as expected with any Vital Remains release, since Dave Suzuki hasn't handed that particular duty over to Glen Benton just yet, which is certainly a relief given Benton's complete lack of ability to write an interesting lyric for the past 10 years and counting.

Anyway, music! There's a lot of it here too. Nearly 68 minutes. That's a lot of time to listen to any particular death metal band. Luckily, once the mammoth running time sinks in, it becomes evident that Icons Of Evil is essentially Dechristianize 2.0: epic intro, violently fast title track, then switch between epic and brutal for the remainder. The drumming is more intense, the slow parts are more crushing, the guitars are consistently vicious and the leads are brilliant, once again. Of course, that doesn't mean this won't get boring, since I often find my attention wandering during the first half of the album. The second half is a lot thrashier and surprisingly reminiscent of Vital Remains' older material, albeit with a much cleaner, more polished approach. The dark majesty of Let Us Pray and Into Cold Darkness is gone, but it's aptly replaced by a clinical intensity which suits this material perfectly.

A few notes: "Till Death" is not an Obituary cover. "Disciples of Hell", on the other hand, is a Yngwie Malmsteen cover which comes off surprisingly well. The artwork is an amusing replica of a specific shot from "The Passion of the Christ", so i'm sure Mel Gibson will be highly amused if he ever sees it. People who think Vital Remains is "that Deicide side project with Glen Benton in it" need to be shot and crucified.

June 27th, 2007