Review by Michael on September 29, 2024.

Only one year after the three Frisians visited the spheres beyond Acheron, they now worship the God Of The Godless on their already fifth regular studio album. On that one, we don't find a nice intro or anything of that sort but a straight jump into the cold North Sea where you gonna land your ass straight on a stone full of barnacles and razor clams, ouch!!! Once again a fantastic Paolo Girardi cover decorates the album, this time kept in purple (or is it pink?) and some good old Death / Pestilence / Morgoth vibes set the frame for the upcoming circa 40 minutes. Jens Finger's high-pitched screamed-out vocals sound as sick and pissed off as always and if you expected some stylistic changes in the Temple Of Love ehh Dread you will be disappointed for sure. But all the guys and ladies who liked the previous four death metal infernos will be enchanted with a diabolic smile on their faces.

Not that the trio is blasting through their nine songs, sometimes they have remarkably reduced their speed but that doesn't make the songs less interesting though. A song like 'Spawn Of Filth' with its machine-gun-like drumming is full of tension and sheer brutality with the creeping riffs. And if you listen carefully you will find the one or the other Death-like tune that could have been on “Spiritual Healing”, too. But also some more modern sound is lurking out here and there like in 'Sacrificial Dawn' where you might find some Slayer-borrowings from “Diabolous In Musica” (I hope that Jens, Markus, and Jörg won't appear out of a dense fog to kill me for that) and a lot of really cool, catchy and smart death metal riffs you haven't heard before, too. This one is a really great death metal song with all you need to be happy. In the title track, you will be taken on a ride with the ferrymen across a pretty heavy troubled sea. The song is unsettling and fast with a lot of disharmonic guitars. Of course, the ferryman does a solid job and so you always find back into calmer water underlined with some dramatic keyboard tunes. 'Monstrosity Divine' is one of my favorite tracks on God Of The Godless because of its super-diversity. Starting crawling and menacing, the song turns out faster and faster and literally explodes after some minutes. If you need a summary of the whole album, I guess that this one is candidate number one for that job. The last track 'Demise Of Olympus' starts with some acoustic tunes that give the song a very special flair. Mostly kept in the slower tempo range there is always some tragic element in the song and the melodies are always full of power and epicness. Maybe the end of the song and the whole album might have been a little bit more powerful, so Olympus has just fallen and nobody mourns that.

After I gave its predecessor Beyond Acheron 9.6 points back then, I have to state that I like God Of The Godless a little bit more because of its catchiness. I didn't need so much time to get access to it and it is a little bit more easy listening (okay, my mother-in-law probably wouldn't agree to that). The production is flawless again, so there isn't too much to complain about here. There can be only one rating this time for one of the best European death metal albums in 2024.

Rating: 9.7 out of 10