Created to Kill - Death's Construction

Artist: Created to Kill
Release Title: Death's Construction
Year: 2013
Label: Horror Pain Gore Death Productions
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Fascination with Your Death
2. Object of Perfect Torture
3. Into the Frozen Tomb
4. Murdered and Mutilated
5. Corpse Collector
6. Machete
7. Suffocated in a Bodybag
8. Self Inflicted Flame Engulfment
9. The Reaper Always Wins
10. Death on the River

Continuing to deliver the brutality, Kentucky-based brutal death metallers Created to Kill have been built around their dedication to old school brutal Death Metal that is uncompromising and intense. With a five-year gap in between releases that sees long-time bassist Abe Simmerman put down the instrument in favor of bringing Phil Good onboard to join brother Paul, the group releases its second full-length album October 30, 2013 on new label Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.

From the outset, this here is pretty much a consistent and constant blast of frenzied, brutal death metal delivered with plenty of old-school verve. This is featured with the utterly ravenous and deep, tight riff-work full of frenzied arrangements and utterly frantic arrangements that give this one plenty of dynamic speed-drenched arrangements that makes for some truly impressive times. The loose, rattling rhythms mixed alongside these elements create a fine old-school approach in the riffing by offering up a fine series of thrashing patterns with plenty of furious and utterly savage arrangements while still giving plenty of fine tightly-wound riffing which is part of the wholesale approach to the genre which makes for quite the appealing time playing into the rules of that genre. That indeed is one of the main flaws here in that it’s quite formulaic and goes for the prototypical frenzied brutal death approach even with the inclusion of the more stable riff-work here and it does become somewhat of a massive blur as the album goes along due to the bands’ stature giving them so little room for refining the riffing and plays itself into that familiar playbook. There’s a dynamic and enjoyable crunch to the riffing that elicits quite the fun enthusiasm and competence at the style to overcome this slight flaw as it’s not the biggest detriment, but it does come up throughout this one and does hold it back somewhat.

Despite coming across as quite a familiar blur of frenzied riffing and pummeling rhythms that dozens of other bands in the genre offer, there’s still plenty to really like with this one’s generally furious approach and competence at their performances that it should be a worthwhile choice for aficionados of brutal death for the most part.

Score: 81/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
http://createdtokill.bandcamp.com/

Unendlich - Scales of Existence

Artist: Unendlich
Release Title: Scales of Existence
Year: 2016
Label: Horror Pain Gore Death Productions
Genre: Old-School Black Metal
Tracklisting:
1. When It's Too Late
2. Parasadistic
3. Transparent Man
4. I Despair
5. Way of All Flesh
6. Dethroned
7. Exsanguination
8. Destroyer
9. Rearranged to Be Broken
10. Pillars of Decay

Taking their sound to greater heights, Baltimore-based one-man black metal project Unendlich carries on their namesake meaning as multi-instrumentalist Michael Connors Jr. explores the nihilistic experience that forms through their unending assault. Taking a two-year gap between albums to fully unleash the ravenous energies within, the sophomore full-length effort was originally released October 29, 2016 on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.

As was predominantly part of their previous work, the vast majority of the album transcends traditionally-flavored black metal with the basic formula of attack. Built around swirling, fiery tremolo-picked riffing and traditional European-accented rhythms that make this one stay in remarkably consistent paces and tempos for the most part, it’s all a rather fine and frantic series of composed chaos here. The riffing comes straight from that stylistic hand-book of attack and really generates the kind of aesthetic which keeps this one galloping along with this series of competent, professionally-driven charges here with the ability to accent these with snippets of melody that give this a decidedly apparent balance. That works nicely here for the album with this one able to retain a strong overall consistent vibe of bleak, blistering old-school riffing that keeps the attack simple and straightforward with their riff-work handling this approach in a consistent manner. On the whole, this is rather fun and intriguing, though it does have the distinction of highlighting the fact that this one doesn’t really offer up much of any big distinguishing factors here as this one simply offers up melodically-tinged old-school black metal which is competently played but that’s about it. On that rare occasion, it features some memorable riff-patterns but that’s not as constant throughout here which is a disappointment since when it does this scores mightily.

Though it does strike with a powerful, competently-played approach for the most part, it’s not as consistently devastating in it’s attack to really score into the upper echelon it easily could’ve which in the end does lower it slightly but not enough to make for a wholly enjoyable assault for any fan of this particular style of black metal.

Score: 93/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
http://unendlich1.bandcamp.com/album/scales-of-existence-2