But there’s nothing wretched about it
They say everything’s bigger in Texas for a reason, and that’s something the hefty Denton outfit Creeping
Death knows all too much about. Even their first two EPs—last year’s Specter of War and 2016’s
Sacrament of Death—were girthy in their five- and three-song-long spans, respectively. With their full-length debut Wretched Illusions, Creeping Death proves their gusto isn’t just for show. Nay, it’s one that
comes so naturally to them, and one that has a place presently. They’ve learned greatly from death metal
greats like Obituary sure, but they’re still contributing something new and original to the metal
conversation at large.
Take album opener “Ripping Through Flesh,” for instance. Its first few seconds are filled with
unclenching drum solos and thrilling riffs, accentuated by a quite grizzly vocal delivery. It’s thrashy much
like its chaotic counterpart “Bloodlust Contamination,” with frantic tactics for commanding attention.
Creeping Death even hit doomy notes on tracks like “Dawn of Time” with intensely sludgy riffs that
make it pack that extra power. They end on an even bigger note with the lurid screams on “Consumed”
that fade out into sounds just as creepy and haunting as what got the record started.
Creeping Death is fierce, and Wretched Illusions shows that. They’ve welcomed outside comparisons
for their capacity to hit on aggressive thrash tempos, but Creeping Death really makes their name is with
their very accurate sonic nods to the old school, Scandinavian death metal like pioneers Entombed. They’re
not trying too hard though—instead of producing a record of overwrought and bogus attempts at
classically brutal styles, they found a sweet spot between a melodic deficit and perfectly crafted,
gruesome nods. For a debut, Creeping Death is carving out a solid place for themselves within the
current metal scene, and we couldn’t be more thankful to have them there.
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