Deicide’s 2004 album Scars of the Crucifix was their first release after parting ways with Roadrunner Records and the last to feature founding guitarists Eric and Brian Hoffman. By this point, the internal strife that would soon break this lineup was leaking into the music. Where Deicide had always been an outwardly destructive force, seeking to leave anything that crossed their path in a pile of rubble, those destructive impulses started to turn inward near the end of the Hoffman era. In these songs, Glen Benton’s vocals become an act of self-incineration, while the rhythms often feel jumpy and constrictive, as if the band were asphyxiating themselves. Fortunately, some of these themes actually work in favor of the music, especially because Deicide have always embraced themes of anger, hatred, and annihilation. Tense and frenzied, the music in “Enchanted Nightmare” and “Go Now Your Lord Is Dead” mirrors the images in the lyrics. Overall, the album’s strongest songs arrive toward the beginning. “Scars of the Crucifix” is epically infuriated, while “F**k Your God” lives up to its reputation as a favorite song to play during enemy interrogations.