Words by Justin Donnelly

Floridian death metal act Deicide (A word describing the act of killing a being of a divine nature, namely Jesus Christ) emerged onto the scene with plenty of high praise for their self titled 1990 effort, and only propelled themselves into death metal’s elite with their 1992 sophomore effort Legion. But they also courted an equal amount of controversy, with bassist/vocalist Glen Benton’s over the top image (The self inflicted inverted cross scar burned into his forehead), his bold proclamations (His premonition of his life ending at the ripe age of thirty-three amounted to nothing), the infamous bomb scare (A bomb went off at a gig at Stockholm back in 1992, with a warning of more to come), the protests from animal liberation organizations (Following a somewhat misrepresented ‘Animal Killer’ article that appeared in N.M.E. when Benton shot a squirrel with a pellet gun during the said interview) and the groups obvious and defiant anti-Christian stance only fuelling all manor of negative/novelty valued publicity for the group.

For the next six years, Deicide maintained a consistency with albums such as Once Upon the Cross (1995), Serpents Of The Light (1997) and their debut live album When Satan Lives (1998), but within two years, the crack were starting to show. Both 2000’s Insineratehymn and 2001’s In Torment In Hell were considered weak efforts, which inevitably led to the dissolution of their long-standing relationship with Roadrunner Records after twelve years together.

Benton contributed vocals to Vital Remains’ fifth album Dechristianize in 2003, leading many to speculate on the future of Deicide. But in 2004, Deicide returned in fine form with their first album for Earache Records in Scars Of The Crucifix. Behind the scenes however, tension within the band reached breaking point when guitarists/brothers Brian and Eric Hoffman decided to leave the group (In November 2004) after nineteen years of service. Ex-Cannibal Corpse guitarist Jack Owen and Vital Remains guitarist Dave Suzuki helped out Deicide (Benton and drummer Steve Asheim) for the remainder of the tour (Which was documented on 2006’s When London Burns D.V.D.). Upon completion, ex-Death/Iced Earth guitarist Ralph Santolla replaced Suzuki as a permanent member of Deicide.

With a revitalised line-up in place, Deicide returned with their eighth full-length release The Stench Of Redemption in August, which has since been hailed as the best album to emerge from the death metal act since Legion.

Sitting on his porch at his Florida home, I spoke to Benton about the split with the Hoffman brothers, their move from Roadrunner Records to Earache Records and the overwhelmingly positive response to The Stench Of Redemption.

“Man, after twenty years of getting my balls busted, it feels good to finally start getting some recognition. Everybody has been freaking about the album. It’s in the charts everywhere, and it’s a nice feeling. It’s very humbling and gratifying after all these years of taking all the criticism and hits that I have to get some good press. I’m thirty-nine and I finally have an album out that nobody has anything too bad to say about it.”

Benton isn’t afraid to admit that Deicide’s return to form on The Stench Of Redemption has a lot to do with the addition of new guitarists Owen and Santolla.

“There’s a greater emphasis on the technical side of things on this album, and that has a lot to do with Owen and Santolla now being in the band. I mean Asheim had to dumb down a lot of the stuff he wrote because the Hoffman brothers simply couldn’t play the stuff. Now we have two guitarists that know what they’re doing, which has in turn made for what I think is a very good album.”

Apart from giving the band a much-needed kick in the ass, Owen and Santolla also bring a sense of harmony to Deicide, which is in stark contrast in the last couple when the Hoffman brothers were part of the Deicide line-up.

“We’ve all known each other for years, so everybody fits in nicely. The whole transition of guitarists fell into place so easily. I mean the day after we knew that Brian (Hoffman) was leaving, Owen stepped in. And it was maybe a few days later that Eric (Hoffman) stepped out, when led to Santolla stepping in. Throughout the whole change, we didn’t miss a beat. Since then, nobody has had anything harsh to say. Everybody pretty much gets along for the most part. It’s been enjoyable because we all get along well. The entire band is now full of professionals. You know how it is with musicians. They’ve always got a hang up. There’s always a major problem with someone, whether that be drugs, steroids or whatever the case might be. So everybody has a problem. Sometimes those problems after a while will surface into every aspect of that person’s life, and that’s what was basically happening with the Hoffman brothers. But with Owen and Santolla now members of the group, and all four of us pushing forty years old, all of us have pretty much worked out our idiosyncrasies. Santolla’s a character. I won’t deny that. He’s a stereotypical guitar player. But his idiosyncrasies are nowhere in comparison to what I was used to dealing with in regards to the Hoffman brothers. We all get along, and it’s a comedy show sometimes. We all work off each other, get along great, have fun and laugh. I enjoy doing it now. I used to hate my fucking job man, but now, I enjoy it. I don’t think about quitting every time I go out on the road now. It’s made being in Deicide a lot more enjoyable for me. After putting up with the hell that I’ve been through for the last twenty years, I kind of look at things now as a reward. Tours go by quicker, and we’re playing longer sets. Obviously the albums are going to get better too. It’s just great man. For once I’m really pleased with my life, or at least the job aspect of my life.”

The situation with the Hoffman brothers became so bad that Benton seriously considered hanging up his role as front man for Deicide in favour of taking up the vacant position in Vital Remains full time.

“When I played with Vital Remains on their Dechristianized album, I was working my way out of Deicide. That’s why I went out and did that album. After all the years I had been playing in Deicide, I had never done anything outside of the group side project wise. It reached a point where I had finally had enough, so I announced that I was going to do an album with Vital Remains, and just see how it all worked out. I got a really good response to it, and that seemed to push the band even further and further away because they realised that I didn’t really need them. Although my involvement in Vital Remains was emphasised as merely a side project, I looked at it differently. I had had enough. And that was because of the Hoffman brothers, and their antics on the way out. They were trying to sink the ship. I wasn’t going to let them sink the ship, so I held out for as long as I could. When I did the Vital Remains album, that sent a really profound message to them, and that was that I didn’t need them. And they got that message.”

But the real reason for the Hoffman brothers discontent with Benton wasn’t over Deicide’s style, direction, or even Benton’s outside curricular activities, but over money.

“We were putting up with them, and babysitting them on every tour that we did together. I mean they couldn’t even rent themselves a rental car. Asheim had do stuff like that for them! If you put the two of them together, you don’t have a sixth grade education. And Asheim and I just got tired of it. But if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty of the reason behind the Hoffman brothers’ resignations, it was all over publishing. When we were kids, and signed to Roadrunner Records back in the day, our publishing was split four ways, regardless of who wrote what. Now throughout those years, we lost a lot of money through them constantly cancelling tours and everything else. So when our deal expired with Roadrunner Records, Asheim and I signed a new deal with Earache Records. Because Asheim and I do the bulk of the writing (Asheim the music, and Benton the lyrics), we asked that the publishing deal be that of industry standard whereby those to write the songs gets paid for it. So if you write the music, you get half the publishing. And because I write the lyrics, I get my half. Because the Hoffman brothers would only write a limited amount, when they got paid for their publishing from Earache Records, they flipped out and quit the band. It was all about money for them. And after all the years and the shit that they’ve done to both Asheim and I, we really thought about why we should give them money that is rightfully due to us. But it wasn’t just that. We also though about the money they constantly lost for us through cancelled tours, and some of the other shit they did that was wrong. One example was when Asheim’s dad passed away. The pair got onto the Internet and started posting some derogative things about Asheim’s dad dying. They really did it all to themselves. They always have. They’re their own worst enemies. From what I’ve heard, Eric (Hoffman) has been in and out of jail for who knows what, and Brian (Hoffman) is working a fucking dead end job. They got what they wanted. They had it made. They had a free ride for twenty fucking years with Asheim and I. They never had to do much of anything, apart from just showing up, playing and being happy. They couldn’t do that. Now we have Owen and Santolla. They love the fucking gig. They make killer fucking money, and they get a chance to shine and display their talent. To be paid properly for your work, and to be able to perform to the best of your abilities is anybody could want. The Hoffman brothers will never come back into this band, and I’ll never perform with them live. Never.”

While the absence of the Hoffman brothers signified a certain amount of change in regards to the recording of The Stench Of Redemption over Scars Of The Crucifix, it was the absence of one Neil Kernon.

“The recording of The Stench Of Redemption was easier because we didn’t have fucking Neil Kernon (Producer) in the studio wasting our money! Asheim and I had always pretty much done most of the production work on previous Deicide albums, and Earache Records’ decision to bring Kernon in was a big mistake I think. He ate up a lot of our budget, and he didn’t really add too much as far as any input to what finally came out. I would say that he didn’t meet a producer’s qualifications. He dragged the sessions out for a long time, and I wasn’t really happy with the end result. Adding to that, the Hoffman’s tried pulling some shit on the mixes with the guitar sounds. It was just a mess. But with The Stench Of Redemption, we reverted back to what we had done in the past. Asheim wrote the music like always, and I wrote all the lyrics like always, and we got together and learned the songs, went into the studio and bam, knocked them all out. We came out of the studio with big smiles on our faces. Everybody enjoyed turning up to the studio and we had a lot of fun. It was a good time. I was able to get on top of my shit from the word go too. So I wasn’t behind schedule at all, and neither was anyone else. This album was really easy to make.”

Having proven that that they’re able to produce themselves, Earache Records also allow Benton to take the reigns of their latest promotional video clip for Homage To Satan after the label’s chosen director failed to do the band justice with his interpretation of the title track from their last album Scars Of The Crucifix.

“I wrote a conceptual script for the title track of our last album, and Earache Records totally shot it down and went with what they wanted to do. It made a good video turn into shit. Because of all the harsh criticism Earache Records got for that video, they let me do things my way this time around. I wrote the concept for the video, as far as the storyline, and then allowed the director to put his spin on it, and that how it came about. I think I’m pretty happy with it. Everybody seems to love the video. It’s old-school style in terms of what a video is supposed to be like. It has theatrics, and some live footage, and I think it makes for a good video. I think that everybody involved helped making it did a great job.”

Earache Records’ involvement in Deicide’s production and their promotional video shoot of Scars Of The Crucifix is understandable when you consider that the album was supposed to be a simple one off deal between the pair. But with the deal now being extended, Benton was quick to take control of his band’s future, and the proof lies within The Stench Of Redemption.

“You’re right. We initially signed to Earache Records for one album, and at the end of that deal, I renegotiated for two more albums. Looking back, I didn’t want Deicide to finish the way they did with Roadrunner Records. It was the Hoffman brothers that wanted out of that deal. So what they did was rush through the processes in order to get out of the Roadrunner Records deal. The end result was there meant that the albums really suffered. Personally, I didn’t want out of the Roadrunner deal. I didn’t, and still don’t have a problem with Roadrunner Records. They always treated me right, and if I ever needed any money, or any help, they were always there for me. The only reason the relationship got the way it did was because of the Hoffman brothers were constantly calling and harassing them. I didn’t want the deal I had with Roadrunner go out that way, that’s why towards the end of the whole thing, I had very little to do with the band. I just kept my distance, and didn’t put too much effort into the band, or the albums. I just threw it out there. But now that everybody’s heads are where they need to be, it makes me doing my job a whole lot more fun. I would rather write lyrics to Asheim’s songs, rather than have a bunch of shitty fillers on our albums. When it came time to find a new label, I think Earache Records were pretty much done. It took a year to negotiate that deal. I helped them, and then they helped me. That’s how I’ll say it. They really didn’t have many big bands on their label at the time, and they were really hurting for somebody to help bring them back out of the toilet. I think we’ve helped to do that. We negotiated a deal for one album, and Scars Of The Crucifix did really well for them and us. It’s fifty/fifty profit share. It was a great deal, and the album did really well, so I wanted to lock them in for a deal, more than they wanted to lock us into a deal! (Laughs) Usually it’s the record company that what to lock you in for a bunch of albums. I said to the band that with this deal is something that we need to lock them into! So far The Stench Of Redemption has been doing really well, and both Earache Records and Deicide are doing well.”

In regards to the future, Benton sees a bright future for Deicide as they announce their return to the stage both nationally, and internationally.

“Things are looking good. We have a lot of cool things on the horizon. We’ll be starting our U.S. tour in October, which will run until sometime in November. We’ll then be heading down to Australia in the first week of December for a week. I’m really looking forward to that. That should be a lot of fun. We’ll be doing some seven shows there. When we come back from that, we’ll be going to Europe for a month (In January) with Visceral Bleeding and Psycroptic. Things are really looking good for Deicide, and you can take it from me, things are only going to get better from here on in!”

Deicide's latest album, The Stench Of Redemption, is out now on Earache Records through Riot! Distribution. Deicide are touring Australia and New Zealand in December 2006 playing the following dates: December 11, Perth, Heat Nightclub; December 12, Adelaide, HQ Nightclub; December 13, Melbourne, The Hi Fi Bar; December 14, Sydney, The Gaelic Club; December 15, Auckland, The Studio; December 16, Christchurch, The Civic; December 17, Brisbane, The Arena. For more information on Deicide, check out www.deicide.com.