It’s hard, in objective terms, to really review a band like God Dethroned. Thirty two years into a recording career marked, above all else by dependability and sheer perseverant stickability, the phrase ‘it does what it says on the tin’ could well have been written with Henri Sattler and company in mind. You know instinctively what you’re going to get as soon as needle hits wax, which makes my job more than a little superfluous…

Still, we’re professionals here at Sentinel Daily, and I’ve been charged with reviewing The Judas Paradox so a review is what you’ll get! To these battered old ears, the band took a bit of a dip on the Under The Sign of the Iron Cross and The World Ablaze albums (but only a bit, mind); They picked up again with 2020’s Illuminati and now that good work continues with new offering The Judas Paradox, which is a genuinely enjoyable slab of tuneful but very blackened death metal.

Sattler leads from the front, of course, laying the nasty vibes down thick n’heavy on The Hanged Man but his weathered rasp never swamps the music, leaving plenty for the ears to pick up on even as he does his worst at the mic. That’s good, because Sattler’s guitar cohort Dave Meester has plenty to say, too, delivering some tasty lead work that’s equalled throughout by the energetic drum interjections of Frank Schilperpoort, whose works well in tandem in the engine room with bassist Jeroen Pomper.

Best track Asmodeus is like a ‘best of’ God Dethroned concentrated into three minutes and thirty three seconds of pure hate, and Kashmir Princess is almost as effective, mesmerising the listener with pumping rhythmic force and an interesting arrangement that keeps the listener engaged, but having said that engagement isn’t really a problem here, as every track has something to offer and something that will appeal right across the wide spectrum of death metal moods that the band inorporate. A listenable death metal album? Not quite as unlikely as the concept might seem, certainly when God Dethroned are involved!

The Judas Paradox releases on September 6th.