### Darkcreed: Dark regions

#### 03/09/08 || Lord K Philipson

The vocalist of this band is a nice fucken dude. He’s sent me a t-shirt for no apparent reason some time back and here comes a mini-cd where 6 tracks of death metal is present. Bribes always work. Sometimes good music works as well when I’m about to cook up a review.

Judging by the cover you understand there will be no-to-little emo included on this offering. Skulls are very metal. Ugly skulls are even more metal. This artwork’s got some 20 fucken skulls included and that’s that. In black and white, ofcourse. Can’t go wrong with fucken skulls, people. The flipside of the box has got some skull/zombie head that looks like a crossover between forum member Saldiac and a monkey. Like in real life it’s ugly as fuck but still appealing in some bizarre way. Check it out on their MySpace thing in case you feel like it.

With that out of the way, let’s check out the music of Darkcreed… It’s quite filthy and competent death, without a doubt. I hear some hideous Six Feet Under influences in the riffing, which usually would be a very, very bad thing – but it works here. Expect no wankery or technical display of musicianship, just expect some simple and catchy music of death with the occasional groove and a decent-to-good production. I certainly don’t mind. Focus is on varied vocals and simple song structures. Vocalist Andres got a fine growl (I get some Barney Greenway vibes at times) with enough clarity to actually make it possible to hear what he is blabbering about most of the time, which is the usual stuff; having kids, growing up, planting flowers, etc.

Not only do I spot the mentioned SFU influences, there’s also hints of early Entombed (the more melodic passages) and early Grave (the slow, heavy stuff). They keep it pretty mid tempo though so expect no death metal in the way of Krisiun or Vomitory. This band is free of blasts. As much as I love blasts, it’s nice to occasionally hear a death metal band devoid of those, a band that pay homage to the old-school era without inserting the new school shit. Darkcreed do that quite well. I’m pleasantly surprised since I didn’t expect much of Darkcreed. They should definitely continue down this path and keep their death flowing.

But it’s not all woopie-di-fucken-do here. Some stuff is in need of a little work. There’s a bunch of riffs that I could do without, riffs that feel like they were just added to make the song longer. Dissect what you guys come up with in the rehearsal room a little harder from time to time. Also, make sure that the drummer never cheats on the hi-hat or ride when he plays the fast parts. Even if it’s intentional it sounds like fucken shit. He seems like a competent drummer, for sure, so playing those beats steady and correct (if there is such a thing) shouldn’t be a problem since he obviously manages it in most of the fast sections.

Nonetheless, I dig this and it will stay on my computer and in my CD-shelf. I look forward to the next recording.

7,5/10.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Soulseller Records
- Website: Darkcreed MySpace
- Band
- Andres Furukawa: growls and vomits
- Miguel Angeles: guts and shitripper
- J.C Chavez: session corpse’s devastator

- Tracklist
- 01. Sinner mind
- 02. Hell to be reborn
- 03. The unnamed holy fake
- 04. Encoffined
- 05. Dark regions
- 06. Deathless ones