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Haunting and aggressive Death Metal that is given the star treatment.-
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| Undead Creep: The Ever-Burning Torch |
Death Metal
Dark Descent Records
June 28th, 2011
- Immolated for Reincarnation - 3:40
- God's Disdain - 3:00
- Surrounded by Tombs - 4:26
- Eternal Rest - 4:04
- Frozen Asphyxiation - 4:02
- Interlude - On Blackened Mountains - 1:44
- Eradicated Memories - 4:24
- Swallowed by the Chasm - 3:57
- Survive the Aftermath - 3:07
- Forbidden Cult - 4:09
- Intro - Darkest Slumber (Demo) (Bonus Track) - 0:41
- Final Femise (Demo) (Bonus Track) - 3:27
- Ritual Slaughter (Demo) (Bonus Track) - 3:31
- Summoning the Abyss Lord (Demo) (Bonus Track) - 4:34
- Undead Creep (Demo) (Bonus Track) - 3:03
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| Review Information |
Release length: 51:57
Review posted on July 16th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 9/10 |
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| Review |
Undead Creep is an Italian based Death Metal band that only recently formed in 2009. That same year, the band issued their demo recording, Undead Creep, and stormed the underground Death Metal scene with their solid performance of the Swedish take on this style of music. Eventually this led to the band signing with Dark Descent Records to issue their debut full-length effort, The Ever-Burning Torch. This release holds ten newly recorded songs, as well as all five of the original recordings from the Undead Creep demo, a favorable touch to anyone who is or becomes a fan but missed out on an actual demo pressing. With over one hour of material from bonus tracks and newly recorded songs, all one can do is hope that the journey will be as brutal as possible in the most pleasing way.
The production to The Ever-Burning Torch is well done. The audio itself is clear, though muddy enough to catch the heavier bite of the guitars while allowing the bass to be loud enough that it makes a strong presence in the music, allowing it to be much deeper. The drumming is at the proper levels with every piece of the kit and done very well to match not only the heaviness of the song, but retain a menacing beat to the haunting atmosphere that can accompany the strong Swedish Death Metal sound. The environment to the recording simply feels black, as if in the dungeons or catacombs of an eery, lost location, enhanced nicely by the deep, menacing guttural vocals that have a heavier echo effect on them, allowing them to sound as if they are ringing through the said dungeons or catacombs by an unknown entity. Because of this, The Ever-Burning Torch ends up being anything far from having a glimmer of hope or even light to the haunting, intimidating music recorded for this album.
"Immolated for Reincarnation" starts off the album, as well as becomes the first time the really haunting atmosphere kicks in. While the aforementioned atmosphere is obvious from the start, the soul-crushing faster paced track manages to end with the same haunting vibe that it started with, but is accompanied by very simple and short keyboards that add to the atmosphere. This is one of the very few times that this environment is pushed so hard, and it sets this release up nicely and lets you know what to expect from the group. While it's sad that the keyboards used towards the end of this song don't play a larger role in later songs, it's more reaffirming knowing the band can write this kind of atmosphere in their own music without having to resort to keyboards or other unconventional Death Metal-based instruments to achieve it.
As you progress through the album, you'll also pick up on some heavier Doom Metal inspirations, or what could be considered that style mixed in. While "Surrounded by Tombs" does give off that slower, Doom ridden approach, it's "Eternal Rest" that really captures the trudging, crawling speed of the music with an intensity of early Novembers Doom, though the track does pick up speed as you get deeper into the song, showing some signs of bands like Incantation but without the slam aspect of the style (as in a large focus on heavy breakdowns). These moments wind up being very few and far apart as well, though not as scarce as the keyboards on "Immolated for Reincarnation". Instead, the main fixation of the album is a faster, heavier approach that feels like it's trying to brutalize the listener both through the music, as well as in the atmosphere of the album, which winds up leading to solid Death Metal any way you look at it.
There isn't a single track on here that's really bad. Many of the songs on here are fantastic Death Metal songs, but again it seems that they change between the soul crushing slower paces and the faster assaulting speeds a bit too much and it starts to get a bit inconsistant with what the group is trying to do, never really keeping a solid flow with the atmosphere of the recording outside of a couple songs in a row retaining that general environment. Aside the tracks mentioned already, "Frozen Asphyxiation" makes for a blistering paced track full of intensity and intimidation that fans of the style will eat up. The same goes for "Forbidden Cult", though this one does slow down as you continue through the fury-driven song until it starts to fade out, which works well at trying to crush the spirits of the listener again. There is also the instrumental that pops up titled "On Blackened Mountains" which is a slower paced acoustic piece that doesn't really seem to work with the atmosphere of the recording, though it does have a bit of a colder feeling to it, but doesn't really contribute much to the release in the long run.
Included with this release of new material is the five track Undead Creep demo. It's definitely nice to have these songs on here for those who did not know about the band's existence in time to get a regular copy themselves. These songs also allow the listeners to learn what the band sounded like prior The Ever-Burning Torch, which really isn't all that different outside of a muddier, rawer production quality and the lack of the dismal, haunting atmosphere. These tracks show a more intense side of the band, and it sounds great. The only real issue is that it sounds like the band recycled "Darkest Slumber" of these demos to use as the interlude track "On Blackened Mountains", but other then that track as the introduction, this demo even shows a strong, tight performance from a newer band that is well worth sticking around for, or even just popping in to specifically hear these tracks.
The Ever-Burning Torch by Undead Creep is an album that has plenty of potential, and it's clear the band capitalized quite a bit on it. The music is haunting, intimidating, and all around solid Death Metal from start to finish. Aside the interlude track not really being important to the final product, as well as the atmosphere shifting here and there on the release, The Ever-Burning Torch makes for a fantastic Death Metal assault from start to finish that any fan of the style would be proud to have in their collection, especially since this release includes the group's first EP absolutely free and is a standard for the album's pressing. This makes the release nearly fifty two minutes of well performed Metal spanning from the start of the band's career up to today, an offer any fan of Death Metal simply couldn't (and shouldn't) pass up.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Dark Descent Records
via Clawhammer PR.
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