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This is Deicide's fourth album and by then, they had rather perfected their classic sound. If you don't know what that is like, well you are new to this music or haven't been listening to metal at all. The album has all the features that you would expect from this band: furious riffs, blast beats, effects-laden but intelligible vocals and those over the top Satanic lyrics that people love. Songwriting-wise, there isn't that much different to what they have done before, short, fast and to the point is the order of business here. That should not be a surprise since neither growth nor maturity has ever been a trademark of this band.

Serpents of the Light starts out with the classic title track, which in my opinion is one of the best that Deicide has ever made and is a great intro for things to come. Although not every track reaches the level of brilliance of this one, songs like "Bastards of Christ", "Blame it on God" and "Slave to the Cross" gave me a smile. One thing that those tracks have in common is the level of catchiness that they have, as much as Death Metal allows. All the songs here have an unbelievable amount of energy, you can feel the hatred that this band has toward religion and I love that about them. The band's performance is better than what they have done previously but not by much, but certainly good enough.

For all the good things that this album has there are a couple of flaws that bring the rating down. First the production, for some reason to me it sounded like it lacked the necessary punch. It is not bad but could have been a lot better (surprising as this is Scott Burns' work). Second, the drumming sound, not that Steve Asheim is bad (far from it) but the drums have that click/mechanical sound that I dislike (think of a rawer ...And Justice for All). Third, the length of the album, at 30 minutes long is barely a full record, but with not a whole lot of filler ("Father's Bakers" being the exception), I guess it is better that way.

In the end, Serpents of the Light belongs in any Death Metal fan's collection. Seven years into their career, they were one of the most recognized bands of the genre and this album is a big reason why.