The latest in a string of Metal Blade masterpieces that began with '97s "The Grand Grimoire" has pounded yet another glorious spike into the heart of humanity. "Swallow The Spikes" takes aim at those irreverent sinners-perverse preachers in whatever their guise, God Dethroned, demarked and dead on toward hypocrisy, the crudest work of the Devil -- our lead character, as always, the unsung hero who stops cold the warped and unwarranted rumblings of supposed morality dressed in dollar signs and eternal damnation and decay awaits -- but alas, God Dethroned takes umbrage in no uncertain terms with certain other moral issues, lashing out barbarically, offering no quarter and asking none in return.

"Bloody Blasphemous" they were and forever shall remain so long as this horror of humanity continues to have its way. "The Poison Apple," follows the trail left by our famed biblical duo -- never quite like nature intended it should be noted. "Villa Vampiria," "The Mysteries That Make You Bleed," and "The Iconoclast Deathride" is a triumvirate of the most reviled and bloody proportions, standing out in midstream as the band at their sharpest, leaving nothing to chance, their fire burning stronger than ever.

"Ravenous" sees God Dethroned from the very onset at their most savagely brutal best, featuring forefront, Satan scavenging the lifeless remains of a fallen angel within the shadows of the dark before surging forth with a blinding combination of ungodly Black Metal principles, black magic, blinding speed, quick flashes of harmony and singular lyrical content drawn from the cauldron fire. Their dreary downtrodden two-part doom sequence in the form of "Autumn Equinox - Winter Campaign 2002 takes a slightly wrong turn toward a deep abyss where moments in the pain soon becomes intolerable, the twisting writhing instrumental elements lead into a tremendous explosion wrought with mayhem, soaked with death and pure overkill.

"Ravenous" concludes with a cover of the old Death classic "Evil Dead," which they ungraciously manage to defile in no more than two minutes! God Dethroned continues to climb in the ranks among the top three or four among the extremist elite of Death Metal forces!