Deicide’s latest album is a confusing and uninspired effort that leaves you wondering what the band was thinking when they put this together. It’s as though they made this album simply because they had to, without any real direction or passion behind it. While the songs do sound heavy and very much like death metal, it’s in the most lackluster way possible. The riffs are fast and aggressive, but they feel generic and unoriginal, lacking any real distinction. Sure, there are a few moments where the guitars show a bit of groove, but these moments are fleeting and often get buried under repetitive playing.

The drumming is furious, as expected in death metal, but it too feels uninspired. It’s fast and hard, but it lacks the intensity and grit that makes death metal so impactful. The few drum fills that do stand out are brief and don’t save the overall performance. The bass is barely noticeable, adding little to the mix and sounding like it’s just there for the sake of it.

When it comes to the vocals, they are as brutal as ever, but they’re one-dimensional and feel monotonous across the entire album. There’s no variety or experimentation in the vocal delivery, making each track feel like a repetition of the last. This lack of creative risk is perhaps the album’s biggest flaw, as nearly every song blends into the next and leaves no lasting impression.

Even the production, which is usually something to praise in modern metal, becomes a hindrance here. It’s clean and polished to the point that the raw, gritty edge of death metal is completely lost. Instead of feeling chaotic and powerful, the album feels sterile, mechanical, and devoid of character. The raw energy and dissonant beauty of old-school death metal are sorely missed, leaving the entire album to feel like a by-the-books release from a band that helped define the genre.

The album cover itself is a telling reflection of the music within. It looks like something AI-generated, lacking the distinctive, grungy aesthetic that was once synonymous with the death metal scene. Just like the cover, the album feels like it’s trying to capture the essence of something it once was, but ultimately fails to deliver. It's a project that misses the mark on all fronts, feeling forced and out of place in a genre that thrives on innovation and brutality.