Blasphemy - Gods of War

The other Blasphemy album.

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on April 25th 2021) 

(Disclaimer: I will not be reviewing the Blood Upon The Altar demo, seeing as that is an entirely separate release. It's a good demo, you should listen to it if you haven't already)

Blasphemy is one of those bands that to seasoned underground fans needs no introduction. The godfathers of the "War Metal" sub-subgenre, they gave birth to it with classics such as Blood Upon The Altar and Fallen Angel of Doom...., which have since been aped by countless bands, with few ever reaching that level of quality. There is also Gods of War, their sophomore album, which doesn’t get talked about as often, and not without reason. It’s not on the same level of quality as what preceded it, and suffers as a result.

As an album, Gods of War mainly suffers from the fact that its underdeveloped. Very few of the songs even break the 3 minute mark, with quite a few being below 2 minutes. Songs like the title track and “Atomic Nuclear Desolation” are little more than a single riff that’s being played at a high speed for 10-20 seconds before they abruptly end. It’s disappointing because few original songs here (more on that later) that go on longer are actually quite good, since they gave their ideas room to breathe instead of just flinging shit at the wall and not even waiting to see what sticks. What makes this even more of a shame is that when they let the new material develop it kicks genuine ass, seen in tracks like “Emperor of the Black Abyss” and “Empty Chalice”, which are some of the best tracks on offer. Both of them have some great moments that actually have a chance to make an impact due to the longer song length.

Which brings me to my next complaint: 4 out of the album’s 10 songs are from the Blood Upon The Altar demo, which is disappointing when considering that there’s 3 years between this and Fallen Angel.... While one could argue that the debut had the same issue, with 3 of its tracks being from the demo, I'm more inclined to excuse it, since it was the debut, and it’s difficult to make a debut that’s 100% comprised of new material. I wouldn’t have as much of an issue if the short songs mentioned previously were actually developed and not blurs that make me want to check if I accidentally skipped a song.

There is also the matter of production, which is another great change in comparison to its predecessor. The band definitely had a bigger budget here and went for a more “clean” sound, contrasting how underproduced the debut was. It’s worth mentioning that the production being cleaner is in no way an indication that it’s a sterile album. The guitars still sound heavy, the drums still pummel away at the listener, and the bass provides some necessary low end. It has always been a point of contention amongst people discussing this album, but it’s actually one of the few things that didn’t disappoint me with this release. It was handled differently, but in no means was it handled poorly.

Gods of War suffers from a case of the sophomore slump. Its highs cannot really compare with the best moments on either Fallen Angel of Doom…. or Blood Upon the Altar. Despite those weaknesses it’s still is a Blasphemy album, full of fury and destructive tendencies, which by default makes it better than the vast majority of tripe that infests the war metal subgenre. It’s a shame that this is the last album they left us with, but I suppose it’s best to stop writing music when you don’t feel like you’re on top of your game. Who knows, perhaps in the distant future we’ll get another album. A man can dream, right?

Highlights: Elders of the Apocalypse/Blood Upon the Altar, Emperor of the Black Abyss, Necrosadist, Empty Chalice

Rating:72%