Review Summary: Passiondale is one of those albums that makes you feel like you're in the middle of the theme. The theme, in this case, is World War One's horrific trenches. Grab your rifle and helmet and duck in cover, soldier. You won't be going home.
God Dethroned helmsman Henri Sattler has reported that the band will no longer be active by the end of 2011. Being a half-crazed fan of the World War One-inspired melodic death metal band myself, I've decided to review one of the finest albums in the history of melodic death metal.
Quite a few track titles from any God Dethroned album might bear this sense of anti-religion - hell, with a name like 'God Dethroned', that shouldn't come as a surprise. What might surprise people, however, is that the most recent albums (Under the Sign of the Iron Cross, The Toxic Touch, and this) have very little to do with religion. The pseudo-instrumental opener, "Cross of Sacrifice", touches upon the emotional aspect of war; fear, anxiety, and despair. I don't know what the speaker is saying in the track, as it's in a different language (presumably German?), but even without knowledge of the meaning behind the words, it conveys the hopelessness of the situation with the hushed-whispers-turned-desperate-yells before exploding into the ground-pounding, head-thrashing follow-up track, "Under a Darkening Sky".
From this point forward, excluding the ending instrumental, Passiondale is one big headbanging session. "Under a Darkening Sky" has some of the best chemistry between drum and guitarwork I've heard from the genre, and Sattler's vocals fit like a proverbial glove over the World War One backdrop - not just in this track, but throughout the entire album. God Dethroned has an amazing talent for being explosively heavy while carrying a meaningful message that can be heard both in the vocals and the instrumental work. The music depicts such a clear image to me that I can picture a compelling and meaningful music video to go along with each and every track; no exceptions.
With such a well-thought-out sound working behind each track, it's no wonder that Passiondale is one of the best God Dethroned record out there. Epic tracks like "Poison Fog", "Drowning in Mud", and "No Survivors", along with the already-mentioned "Under a Darkening Sky" stand out to me. "Poison Fog" in particular is truly amazing - six and a half minutes of nothing but headbanging might kill your neck, but hell, it was worth it for that song! Another signature piece of God Dethroned's musical genius is the clean vocals that appear from time to time ("Poison Fog" and "No Survivors" in particular). Many bands have difficulty when it comes to properly including clean vocals, but Sattler shows off his mastery of both growled vocals and clean ones in Passiondale (and in many other records).
Here's the final verdict: Passiondale is an incredible album, whether you like metal with clean vocals or not. If I had to narrow it down to three tracks that you must have, I would say "Under a Darkening Sky", "Poison Fog", and "No Survivors", just because they showcase the major lyrical and musical themes you can find on this album. God Dethroned successfully portrays the horrors of World War One, from "Poison Fog"'s intense focus on mustard gas and its countless, terrible uses to "No Survivors"'s lyrical, musical, and deeply thought-provoking retelling of a horrified soldier who's watched his friends and comrades slaughtered in some of the most gruesome ways possible metabattle.
It's a must-have. 4.5/5.
