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Released just after Decide parted ways with Roadrunner Records, this 20-song retrospective surveys the beloved Florida band’s 13-year tenure with the esteemed underground metal label. Deicide brought such a high standard of physicality and concentration to the death metal idiom that they made it almost impossible to keep upping the ante following their eponymous 1990 debut. Even now, “Dead by Dawn” and “Sacrificial Suicide” are inspiring just for their sheer sustained levels of intensity and commitment. The band’s technical prowess reached a peak with their second album, <i>Legion</i>, from which “Satan Spawn, the Caco Daemon,” “Dead but Dreaming,” “Crucifixation,” and “Trifixion” are taken. By the mid-'90s, the rest of the metal world had caught up to Deicide’s innovations and some fans turned elsewhere, which might be why 1995’s <i>Once Upon the Cross</i> and 1997’s <i>Serpents of the Light</i> provide some of this collection’s most underrated gems. “When Satan Rules His World” and “Blame It on God” are gloriously merciless, while 2000’s “Bible Basher” might be the last truly classic song recorded by Deicide’s original lineup.

via Apple Music