Metal Debate Album Review - The Judas Paradox (God Dethroned)

The Great Metal Debate Podcast

Welcome to another episode of The Great Metal Debate podcast, talking about the Dutch blackened death metal band God Dethroned with their 12th studio album The Judas Paradox. While this band certainly has its slight black metal vibes, I've always seen them as more of a melodic death metal band. Their guitar riffs have always been calm and groovy. Two years ago, God Dethroned announced they had switched record labels to sign with Rising Phoenix Music for their next full-length. Fast forward to about two months ago when they released another new song titled "Rat Kingdom". This time around I became very excited because the new song seemed to be leagues superior to the previous single they dropped two years ago. The 2nd single released happens to be both the album title track and the first song on the album. I gotta mention the use of choir in the mix. It's a fantastic addition and sounds completely new. "The Hanged Man" is a song that kicks some serious ass with its Deicide vibes. The layered vocals make it sound extra demonic and it even reminds me of the song "Conquered By Sodom". There's also an old school sounding guitar solo on this one. It's one of the shorter songs but it's definitely a standout. Moving on we have an interlude track labeled as "Black Heart" which is only 51 seconds long. It's a dissonant choir practicing their vowels with church bells ringing. But it leads straight into that song that I mentioned earlier called "Asmodeus". This time I really paid attention to this song so I could absorb every note being played. I wanted to really study this one to see if my opinion of this song would change. The results? When I compared this album version of the track to the music video, there weren't any changes made in the sound mixing. It still sounded like the one and only stale track this band has ever made. It felt soulless compared to every banger this band has produced in the past 27 years. I guess a dud was bound to happen sooner or later, although it did sound better than I remembered. Maybe because this time I had a clear head. "Kashmir Princess" is another song where I remember the riff. As monotonous as it was, I was slightly reminded of one of their earlier works. Not saying that Dave Meester had recycled any riffs but I did get the "Rusty Nails" feeling, albeit, not as heavy. The next track really picks up the pace again to the God Dethroned we all wanted. "Hubris Anorexia" begins with three long screams that are layered in succession. It's here where I have to give both Henri and Dave credit for their winding guitar efforts. Dave also continues to show off his skills as a shredder in "The Eye of Providence". "Hailing Death" is another banger that will make you shout "Hailing Death" every time they say it throughout the song's first minute. This one has another gorgeous guitar riff at the halfway point of the track. Too bad it doesn't last long. It does make a very brief return towards the end of the song which fits as a neat little outro. "Broken Bloodlines" wastes absolutely no time going hard and fast from the first fucking second! The speed of the guitar chugs are aggressively heavy and will make any Taylor Swift fan's head explode. And finally we come to the last song on the album "War Machine". When I saw this song title, I automatically assumed it was a Black Sabbath cover but then I thought, wait a minute, Six Feet Under already did a cover of that. As I listened to this song, I figured out right away that this is an original song by God Dethroned that simply has a name that has been used before. The song is okay, but not their best work. I feel like "Hailing Death" should've been the last track because it had the audio fade out at the end. I feel like it would've worked a lot better. So what's the verdict? God Dethroned has never had a bad album and The Judas Paradox isn't their first. It is not a disappointment by any means. I'm going to rate The Judas Paradox a 7.5/10.