Deicide is the debut album by Florida death metal band Deicide. It was released on June 25, 1990, by Roadrunner Records. The album contains all of their demo tracks, plus the songs "Deicide" and "Mephistopheles".

Background and recording

The album was recorded in the "B room" at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida, where Deicide would record most of their subsequent works. Frontman Glen Benton has expressed dissatisfaction with the album's production quality, which he attributed to budgetary restrictions at the time.

Musical style

While containing mostly Satanic or blasphemous lyrical themes, "Lunatic of God's Creation" and "Carnage in the Temple of the Damned" concern Charles Manson and Jim Jones respectively, and "Dead by Dawn" deals with the plot of the 1981 horror film, The Evil Dead. Glen Benton has stated that no effects were used on his vocals while recording the album, though several songs do contain a pitch-shifted vocal effect.

Reception and legacy

Deicide is sometimes considered to be the bestselling death metal album of all time. Nielsen SoundScan lists it second after Morbid Angel's Covenant up until 2003; however, Deicide was released before SoundScan went into effect, so the SoundScan figure lacks pre-Soundscan sales. The tracks "Dead by Dawn" and "Sacrificial Suicide" have been staples at every live performance. Bradley Torreano from AllMusic praised Deicide saying: "With a shockingly tight performance and a handful of evil anthems, Glen Benton and company managed to craft a death metal classic [...] this album struck a chord that would, for good or bad, instantly inspire legions of like-minded groups." Reviewing the album for Classic Rock in 2000, Darren Sadler said that the album "is still the quartet's finest hour". The song "Dead By Dawn" can be heard on the radio station LCHC in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned.

Track listing

All songs written by Deicide (Glen Benton, Steve Asheim, Eric Hoffman & Brian Hoffman).

Personnel