Death is June - Creeping Death : "Boundless Domain"

 

There is less of an old school thrash feel to "Boundless Domain" as the album's riffs adhetre to more standardized shades of aggressive red. Corpsegrinder guests on the second song , which is written with more attention to detail than the opener. This has nothing to do with Corpsegrinder, just how the cookies crumbled. These guys have always shown a great deal of promise in their songwriting and this album does not seem to be an exception in that regard.  By the third song I begin to check out as things take on a very uniform double bass driven stomp. My second listen to some of these songs, find them connecting more with me. "Parthian Shot' has a more deliberate gallop to it's hammering. 

"Creators Turned Into Prey" might be the strongest song so far, with the most utilitarian use of vocals and more infectious riffs that play off the shifting dynamics of the tempo changes. It creates almost a breakdown feel. This displays the maturation of their songwriting journey. 'Cursed' plays it straight death metal, working off familiar patterns off riffing. The growls of Reese Alavi are articulated in a manner that is easy to decipher making the lyrical picture of the songs quite clear. There is more plot than just horror movie depictions of violence.

The guitar tone to 'Remnants of the Old Gods' sounds like it was pulled from the late 80s. A great time for metal guitar. There is more of an Obituary flavored death doom feel. When the pace picks up it chugs along more common death metal ground. "Looming" picks up where the previous song left off , but is marginally more punishing with it's deliberate gallop. "the Common Breed" closes the album and while it show cases their drummer, when it gets caught up in the chug, there is not a great deal that separates them out from the pack. There is one pretty killer riff, but the rule around here is "cool riffs alone does not a good song make". Still they prove to be pretty solid at what they do and there is a hooky but crushing feel to most of these songs, so while not a perfect album I will give it a 9.