This new 90s metal outburst in countries overseas lately has produced some excellent outfits:Emperor,In Flames, Hypocrisy, Opeth…I could go on forever. But the problem is, once a movement starts, the amount of copycats and half-inspired groups tend to make it bland, and many mediocre releases start appearing. Some of the death/thrash/power/black metal releases I have heard from overseas (or anywhere) lately have been musically right on, but seemed so uninspired, I couldn’t help wonder why I was even bothering anymore. But then I remembered that for every five generic bands, there’s always one that you remember and embrace. One such band is Holland’s God Dethroned. On their second album, Bloody Blasphemy, they mix many styles of metal and keep it interesting, with touches of black, melodic death, thrash, and even tinges of goth metal in their sound. "Serpent King" opens the album with a cinematic soundbyte that lets you know this band definitely isn’t going on a Crusade for Christ. This song is draped with harmonic tremolo runs and tranquil Anthems-era Emperor-esque keyboard parts, black metal chord progressions, and raspy vocals from vocalist Henri, often jumping from aggression to passive relaxation in a matter of seconds. "Nocturnal" is a mid-tempo, symphonic black metal-tinged piece with excellent guitar licks from Jens. "Boiling Blood" benefits from aggressive 90s thrash licks, while "A View of Ages" is a melancholy, epic piece with black metallish guitar lines over a Hypocrisy-influenced keyboard line (although not layered under three guitar parts like the former). One thing that definitely impresses me about this album is instead of bursting into passages of uninspired guitar wanking, they allow for space in some areas. For instance, while "The Execution Protocol" is an up tempo thrash number with a barrage of riffs, the opening is slow and resolute, setting the bonecrushing part of the song up perfectly. Overall, this album seems less about pure aggression to me, and more like a palette of moods. With the many anvil-heavy, weighty pieces on this album come an equal number of beautiful and sometimes dark, airy pieces with moving piano and keyboard lines, and minor key guitar licks. If anything, the balance between aggressive and passive, and the variance of moods on this album make this sucker damn catchy, even though it doesn’t come close to following the "verse-chorus-verse" conventions or anything usually associated with "catchy." This is a band to watch. Buy this CD, you will not be disappointed.