The year of 1991 marked the beginning of the now defunct Dutch death metal quartet, God Dethroned. This being the first of two stints, one that only lasted a mere two years, was one where their music was a much more primitive, dirty, straightforward brand of death metal. Not quite as melody driven and Sattler's vocals are more along the lines of a deeper guttural rather than the raspy, harping growls that would be featured on releases to come. Although, overall, the album doesn't differentiate too tremendously.
The Christhunt, like the majority of God Dethroned releases, is extremely riff driven. Sattler and Carre (the only album the latter would be featured on) throw out blinding riff after riff throughout the album that vary heavily in tempo with the occasional break into a melodic lead, the style reminiscent of a cross between early Swede death and Bolt Thrower circa Warmaster/Realm of Chaos. The riffs are incredibly catchy and are instantly recognizable, with standouts being the groovy main riffs of "Hordes of Lucifer", "Cadavers", and "Necromagnon", all of which are delivered with rich intensity and flow very well with the rest of the instrumentation. They do not shy away from a more aggressive, thrashy approach either as evident in the tracks "Unholdin of Hewe" and "The Christhunt" where the riffs are downright punishing and don't let up through the entire 6+ minute piece. The closer, "God Dethroned" displays more of this, shifting between a doomier tempo and a downright nasty main riff that is accompanied by multiple twisted, blistering solos throughout the song.
The tempo changes are slightly rough in a few areas but overall blend very well and can rotate between a sinister, plodding lead to a blistering, barrage of riffage, to a more steady, melody driven, black metal esque break. "Infernal Sites of a Bloody Dawn", "God Dethroned" and "The Christhunt" are solid examples of songs that transition very well between the three paces, with the former of the three utilizing a crawling, eerie synth outro overtop a melodious lead that evokes a bleak image of both sorrow and catastrophe. The band utilizes these sombre, melodious leads elsewhere throughout "Christ Carnage" and "Cadavers" as well, drawing comparisons to some of the doom/death pioneers, such as Castle, Sempiternal Deathreign and even in the case of the latter, Paradise Lost. Overall, they do a good job of conjuring up a more ominous atmosphere amidst the aggressive foray of riffs.
The old-school production is absolutely wonderful and gives the album a rather cavernous sound while bringing a very solid crunch to the guitars. Much like The Grand Grimoire the bass accompanies them nicely although with this release I found it being a bit overpowered in the muddier sections. Sattler's vocals are much more deep and primitive on this album as opposed to later releases where they were a bit more refined and more akin to that of a putrid, ferocious black metal rasp. They aren't exactly outstanding nor do they contain much variation, but they still have bite and do a good job in channeling the dismal, demonic imagery that the album evokes. The drumwork is very solid and goes nicely with the riffs and tempo shifts. It's very raw and the drummer does an solid job of switching between a variety of patterns to all out blasts during the more aggressive parts. However, in comparison to later releases, it's nothing to shake a stick at and doesn't quite match the vigor of Bloody Blasphemy or Ravenous
All in all, God Dethroned's debut is an excellent slab of blasphemy and is easily capable of matching the quality of many of the other bigger bands in the genre at the time. While it is a much more primitive brand of God Dethroned's later, more melody driven sound, it may appeal to some looking for a rawer, more OSDM-rooted variant of their sound. Solid debut through and through, definitely one of the many highlights of their discography.
86/100
