Extreme metal legends GOD DETHRONED have returned to offer up their latest sacrifice: their new album The Judas Paradox via Reigning Phoenix Music. Lyrically, The Judas Paradox delves deep into the catacombs of religion, drawing inspiration from mythology from all over the world. Though musically diverse, the songs are linked by themes such as the story of Judas, the secrets of the Vatican, powerful demons, the symbolism behind tarot cards, and the nature of good and evil. Vocalist and guitarist Henri Sattler tells us his favorite songs from each of the band’s albums.
“God Dethroned” from The Christhunt
It’s an epic track, it’s a brutal track at the same time, and it’s very much inspired by my all-time favorite band Infernal Majesty. And that makes the song so beautiful and special to me.
“Under a Silver Moon” from Grand Grimoire
It’s also an epic song. I really like the sound of the keyboards as well with the church organ and the choirs. The chord progression in the song is beautiful. I like the lyrics a lot too. It was the first time I took a story from the Bible and wrote it in a down to earth kind of way, which was stirring up some emotions here and there, even in the metal scene. I totally dig that.
“Soul Capture 1562” from Bloody Blasphemy
Although there are a lot more great songs on the album of course, but it’s also an epic song, and I really like and love our epic songs. This song is based on the legend of the Flying Dutchman, the ghost ship. Everybody knows that story. It’s a beautiful story and I wrote beautiful lyrics about it. The song is really cool, really beautiful. A lot of atmosphere and in the end when it goes into blast beat it reminds me of Emperor. It has also always been a big influence on the songs of God Dethroned. So that’s why I like that song so much.
“Ravenous” from Ravenous
Of course, we always play Villa Vampiria live because it’s one of the hits, one of the highlights of the God Dethroned live set. The song Revenous does not do so well live because the song is probably too technical. It’s pretty hard for people to distinct all the riffs in the madness of the playing, but for me it’s the song I can relate to most when I listen to the album. I really love the lyrics. It’s based off of the movie Ravenous. It’s an awesome movie. So that’s why I like that song the best.
“Into the Lungs of Hell” from Into the Lungs of Hell
Again, I choose the most atmospheric track which is the title track of the album. It’s got a beautiful atmosphere. It’s a slow song, a really doomy song. Great atmosphere again. Also a song which is not very suitable for live situations. Because people want more energy live and the song is low energy, but it’s a great atmosphere. So I’d just like to listen to it on the album.
“Nihilism” from The Lair of the White Worm
I think it’s probably the most popular God Dethroned song, especially live. It’s our anthem. It’s the song that we basically always play or as a matter of fact, I think we’ve always played this song when we played live. It’s one of the best songs I ever wrote. And I’m super proud of it. So that’s why I choose this one.
“Away From Emptiness” from Toxic Touch
It’s an instrumental. But the emotion that we put into that song is totally awesome. I wrote the song together with Isaac Delahaye, who’s now playing for Epica. He and I did the composition, and the song arrangement. It’s beautiful. It’s a song that helped me to channel my emotions around the time of my father’s death. So it’s a song that has a special meaning and it’s just a beautiful song with a great guitar solo. Totally love it.
“No Survivors” from Passiondale
It’s a song that we spontaneously wrote in the studio. We needed one more song and we had little time left. The drummer I got together in the recording room and we started jamming. This is what came out. I think the song was written in an hour probably. And what’s so beautiful about is that it’s super catchy and strong at the same time. It’s one of the best songs of the album. Also because it has clean vocals by one of my favorite singers, which is Marco of a band called The Wounded. He did the clean singing for the middle part and it’s just absolutely amazing. That’s why I like it so much.
“Storm of Steel” from Under the Sign of the Iron Cross
It was the first album where I used an Arabian scale. So it’s got different tone combinations compared to songs from previous albums. It gave me a new insight into creativity. It made me write different stuff. It’s one of the strongest songs of the album anyway.
“Annihilation Crusade” from World of Ablaze
It’s one of the GD tracks that has it all. Brutality, awesome riffing and epic atmospheres. Definitely the strongest track on that album. The album concluded the trilogy about World War One.
“Spirit of Beelzebub” from Illuminati
It’s a song that has it all again. It’s brutal and fast, again combined with very strong melodies. A lot of atmosphere, clean singing. A song about Beelzebub, one of my favorite topics anyway. Old Slayer type harmonies we played in that song and also with Infernal Majesty influences again. So it’s got all the ingredients that makes me love this song so much.
“Hubris Anorexia” from The Judas Paradox
It’s very difficult to choose a favorite song because the album is so fresh. Asmodeus is also definitely one of my favorite tracks. It’s the first song that I wrote after Asmodeus, which was released in 2022 as a single. So it took us quite a while to come up with the rest of the album. But when I wrote this song, it really kickstarted the songwriting process into overdrive. We managed to write really strong songs after that. But this one was a strong motivator. The song is about being kept in isolation until you do what the government wants you to do. Once you do, meaning you have to take an injection to be set free even if you don’t want it. You are forced into a situation which is not good for you. The song is a perfect blend between death and black metal. That’s why we call ourselves a blackend death metal band. It’s got super atmospheric keyboards in the middle part. It’s got awesome guitar solos. It’s the only song in the album where Dave and I both play guitar solos. It’s definitely my favorite of the new album. So go check it out.
