Review by Jeger on May 21, 2025.

The mighty Deicide! The blasphemous kings of Satanic death metal. Okay, it's not really Satanic, unless you consider the LaVeyan idea of merely using Satanic imagery and concepts as a means to blaspheme the church Satanic, which I certainly do not. Occultists who practice ritual summonings, black magick and who are members of actual magickal Orders are true Satanists, but I digress. Deicide's Satanic themes are pretty juvenile and that's the reason why they were hated by Euronymous and the Norwegian Inner Circle, but the music? Shit, man, Mayhem STILL can't play like Deicide, and they most certainly couldn't back in the early '90's. Just compare an album like "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" to Legion. Not even fair! Legion made Norwegian black metal artists look like Kindergartners and also many of the bands that called Florida home for that matter. Quite possibly the most furious death metal album ever created.

In 1995 following Legion, Deicide released their third full-length studio LP, Once Upon The Cross. With this one, Glen and crew decided to tone it down a bit and focus more on brutality: big fat riffs and Caveman rhythms along with a temped approach to soloing. The result is a highly accessible death metal record that opened Hell's gates to fans who had not yet given DM a real shot, all the while as it appeased the diehards. This aggressively brutal way of doing things is what separated Deicide from Morbid Angel who were more focused on technicality and classically inspired mumbo-jumbo. Once Upon The Cross is just a fucking banger; plain and simple. Concussive chugs and bludgeoning martial rhythms that give way to incinerating grinds and eviscerating blast beats - a feast of fire for the pyromaniac - raw blasphemy unleashed through the timeless art of true Floridian death metal. Conceptually, this was some deeply controversial shit back in the day. Tracks like "Kill The Christian" had Churchgoers and the entirety of the Bible Belt in a feverish uproar. And Glen's antics during interviews only fueled the mayhem. Ballsy stuff for that particular day and age. Even the original cover art was censored.

Once Upon The Cross features some of Deicide's finest deep cuts like "Trick Or Betrayed" that not only commands you to rip up a Bible, but also features the band in their most disciplined state; just fundamentally sound DM that hits at nut level and then there's the quasi-melodic "To Be Dead" that features a whole different side to the band. Probably the only Deicide track unique enough to be compared to something off of Death's "Human" or "Individual Thought Patterns". People who've ever been dumb enough to discredit Eric Hoffman's talents when compared to those of Chuck Schuldiner need only listen to this cut. Hoffman holds his own for sure.

28 minutes? Hardly seems like enough runtime, but what Once Upon The Cross lacks in duration, it makes up for in substance. Deicide provides a rich listening experience that truly feels lengthier than it actually is, and it's due to the album's savory mid-tempo. Fans wanted "Legion" 2.0, but to expect another record of that intensity would be asking too much. I honestly believe our boys here were on something when they recorded Legion… They had some choice coke down in Florida back in those days.

These days, Deicide has succumbed to the curse of modernity: AI cover art, sanitized product and experimentation not akin to their '90's records. Just not the same; no balls and very little imagination. But has Deicide ever been capable of imaginative lyric writing? The answer is no. As I've mentioned before, it is and always has been remedial at best, but it's the spirit of the band that is their ultimate selling point. To piss on the cross! To brutishly blaspheme and defile, to challenge ignorance and to promote free thinking in the only way Glen knows how and that's good enough for this ole boy. Is Once Upon The Cross an album to be remembered by? Not really, but it WILL get you banging your head and that's a guarantee.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Felix on February 25, 2020.

The production? A sheer catastrophe. The music? Painful nonsense. The artwork? Which artwork? The album as a whole? Fantastic!

Indeed, it belongs to the great mysteries of mankind that so many people are able to love this prime example of sonic ugliness. But the more a band pisses on commercial conventions, the more we can assume that the musicians have an artistic vision and the aim to mirror a part of their personalities. This is probably a very important aspect of art in general: the artist shows a part of herself or himself in order to give the audience the inspiration to seek for further insights. Well, I don't think that Fenriz or Nocturno Culto thought about such things when forging the explosive killer tracks for Transylvanian Hunger and this was probably the best they could do. Anyway, they created a milestone of cold hate, pure misanthropy and unleashed velocity.

Each and every track is like a ferocious pursuit. Darkthrone hunt for the most repulsive appearance and they are, no doubt about it, successful. The vocals deliver nothing but snotty screaming, the guitars sound totally crude and create infernal leads that embody a mix of insanity and horror while the drummer is already insane and thrashes his kit constantly with full force. Repetitive lines are not forbidden, but they do not cause boredom, because this orgy of high speed leaves no time to pause. By the way, Darkthrone cannot completely suppress their musical skills and therefore the seemingly nonsensical structures reveal a surprising depth and more substance than I thought when listening to this exploration of the extremes for the first time. This is no half-baked snot, the songs follow - voluntary or not - a coherent pattern. But don't wait for comparatively "epic" numbers like 'To Walk the Infernal Fields' from Under a Funeral Moon, their first experiment in terms of a crude mix. This time Darkthrone focus on speed and they don't do things by halves.

The back-cover heralds "Norsk Arsik Black Metal" and this cheap provocation fits the scheme. On the one hand, it shows that Darkthrone do not take care about the expectations of their business partners. On the other hand, it is aligned with the musical content: we are ugly, please f**k off. However, this slogan remains dubious, to say the least. But the entire full-length remains dubious, just think of the involvement of Greifi Grishnakh, another formidable expert in terms of "Norsk Arisk" matters. He wrote the culturally valuable lyrics for the second half of the album. Frankly speaking, a song title like 'As Flittermice as Satans Spys' sounds like a persiflage to me. No doubt, this fourth album of Darkthrone belongs to the most polarizing works of the last century, but its influence on the scene cannot be denied. And even if this were not the case, the album definitely stands on its own feet. More independence is nearly impossible.

Do I have something to criticize? Well, the ending of the second track is ridiculous, even the legendary fade-out of Sodom's "Outbreak of Evil" on their first EP sounded less amateurish. Maybe the entire song does not spread the massive amount of vileness that characterizes the further pieces. Anyway, this is no big deal and therefore I would like to come back to "In the Sign of Evil", the first vinyl of Sodom. Perhaps there is a musical and spiritual connection between this EP and Transylvanian Hunger, because both works spat in the face of the business. Darkthrone just took the next stage. I don't want to blame Tom Angelripper, but I think it is common sense that Sodom were non-experienced newcomers when it came to the recording of their debut. Therefore, their slightly crude result was more or less logical. By contrast, Darkthrone had already some albums under their belt, but they decided voluntarily to have this atypical, non-massive yet hateful sound. So, it's up to you: lend an ear to the somersaulting opening title track and test its effect on you. If you don't like the first 15 seconds with its merciless guitar cascades and its rabid drumming, you will hate the album. But I say:

The production? Unique. The music? Wonderful. The artwork? Absolutely suitable. The album as a whole? A milestone.

Rating: 9.7 out of 10

Review by Luka on May 9, 2001.

Where do I start? The mediocrity of this record or the fact that these guys were actually considered to be the elite of their kind in the early black metal scene?

For a "true" black metal fan, this epitomizes everything that the genre was meant to be. Dark, cold grim, evil... From almost anyone else’s point of view, this is one of the most pathetic albums that ever got the privilege of being released. Boring, repetitive, unbearable... Since I am proudly "someone else" and not a "true black metal fan", I’m simply gonna tell it like it is.

Ever wonder why the hundreds of follower black metal bands that keep appearing from Scandinavia don’t play Darkthrone’s style of "True Norwegian Black Metal"? Because IT SUCKS!! And the only black metal bands that get real worldwide attention are ones who have true musical potential, like Emperor and Dissection.

"Transylvanian Hunger" is a collection of probably the most pathetic songs that have ever been branded metal. Each track is horribly repetitive and only progresses just before it gets completely unbearable. Three or four different notes being slowly trilled (double picked) is what’s considered a riff for Darkthrone, and they can’t seem to play anything else on the guitar. Bass is completely inaudible. The drummer pounds a steady, even beat for five minutes and actually adds a fill or two in the duration. How dares he? Is he trying to make this album interesting or something? I’m surprised he wasn’t fired (or sacrificed to Satan) on the spot for trying to change the initial plan of making the world’s most boring record.

The singer rasps indiscernibly for about 60% of the track time. He sings in mostly in Norwegian but you couldn’t hear what the hell he’s saying anyway, so there’s 60% of the CD that I’ll take off the 6 points for, since it’s a complete waste of time. And the rest is taken off for the crappy music.

Bottom Line: Influenced by Venom (an absolute joke of a band) and played by talentless "Satan worshippers", I should have known better. I promise you: this record will cure insomnia!

Rating: 3 out of 10