Late last year, death metal vets Deicide pulled a patently Deicide stunt: dropping the gory, blasphemous music video for “Bury the Cross…with Your Christ” just days before Christmas. For anyone familiar with Deicide’s history and the band’s mastermind Glen Benton, it was both absurdly hilarious and completely expected.
Whether he’s offending the Christian right or shaking down a corrupt concert promoter, Benton has never been one to suppress his uncompromising personality or beliefs. It’s why his creative vehicle, Deicide, continues to endure after emerging from the Florida death metal scene decades ago. He’s not letting anyone stand in the way of his band.
The group’s latest album, Banished by Sin, sees Benton and company on a new label home, Reigning Phoenix Music (RPM), and with a renewed spirit and optimism. Benton himself has called the album a throwback to the band’s “1990s style” in both sound and creative process, and he reflected on the LP as a turning point in his life. A crushing 12-song effort, Banished by Sin is as evil as ever, not to mention sonically rewarding — the effect of raw, organic production. Calling it a “return to form” implies there was some previous dropoff; however, it sure sounds like the work of inspired individuals.
We recently spoke with Benton about the making of the album and his own journey over the past few years. As the band kicks off a North American headlining tour (get tickets via Ticketmaster or here), read our interview with Benton below.
Let’s start at the beginning of the album cycle when you released the video for “Bury the Cross…with Your Christ” around the holidays last year. It seemed like it may have ruffled some feathers in that notoriously Deicide way.
The whole idea with the Christ body and all that shit, [director] David Brodsky, he had a lot to do with that stuff. You give people money to do something, they’ll do it [laughs]. And we had a good time with it. We wanted to do a video making fun of their whole thing, and I think we did a pretty good job of it. It was fun; we had a good time doing it.