Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Creeping Death - Wretched Illusions (2019)

In their work to blend the rabid sound of death metal with the punk/hardcore beats that so clearly influence them, Creeping Death spread a fair smattering of Swedish death metal over proceedings also to provide a release that I certainly want to listen to.  Whereas never quite dropping into worship territory for any particular group or style the band pull together ten tracks and display an aggressive if not predictable performance throughout.

With songs titles like Blood lust Contamination and Peeled from Reality we know we are not listening to a band who are happy with the world at large with their album full of references to violence, war, insanity and death (perhaps not in that order).  They had taken long enough to drop their debut full-length, with 2019 heralding their fourth year of existence and their fifth release to date including singles, demos and EP's in the near half-decade that they had been around.

In that time though the band have simply just blended the styles and not really done anything new or unique with their sound that a handful of other bands do just as well.  Now that's not to say they have to do anything new or unique, they might be perfectly happy with this output.  But all of the "old school" or retro tags that we apply to our death metal nowadays can lead to over saturation of the market with hundreds of bands all sounding the same or very similar.  Yes this nods firmly to Entombed just as much as it does Gatecreeper and so it is obvious that the band have an array of influences, but I don't think Creeping Death themselves ever get to really shine on Wretched Illusions which is a real shame as they are a talented bunch.

Listen, boxes get ticked, i's get dotted and t's get crossed most definitely on this release.  Will you remember it half an hour after finishing listening to it - probably not.  But you'll have fun at least I suppose.