Monarch to the Kingdom of Death

My association with Kentucky is forever linked to Wild Turkey. I don’t mean this in some sort of fucking nostalgic fashion. No, when I was 15 I drank half a bottle like a macho freak. Then an hour later I puked on my parents pristine white carpet, barfed on myself, and passed out. That was my first experience with alcohol and Wild Turkey,
but it did not deter me from booze. My second Kentucky encounter is Created to Kill and their demo called “Monarch to the Kingdom of Death.”

As a demo the sound production ain’t that great, but then I wasn’t expecting Rick Rubin production. Still, what we got here is low tuned guitar fuzz that’s thicker than an hot brunette’s unkempt bush. The bass is a little lost in the fray but the listener can still hear its thickness. Drums are programmed and the low-fidelity production makes
them sound a bit synthetic. Vocals are deep Death/Brutal Metal toned backed by nasal sounding screeches that take me to Chris Barnes era Cannibal Corpse.

Musically I like what they have done. They come across at times sounding like Viral Load mixed with Deicide and this is especially noticeable during the slow and midrange portions of the songs. Beyond that they play up tempo Death Metal that intermittently grinds to a chug in each of the first three tracks. Some cool slam riffs are present that
change from mid pace to fast and back again. The last two songs are covers. The first song is Crionics off of Slayer’ “Show No Mercy” and the other is “Oblivious to Evil” by Deicide from their self titled debut. Both tracks are done solidly.

If Created to Kill are similar to other bands they may be attempting to find their own musical identity through Slayer and Deicide. That is not such a bad thing as long as they do not turn themselves into a glorified tribute band that is ¾ Slayer and Deicide. Scent of Flesh is primary example of that type of conning as is Cerebral Effusion
who blatantly play Cannibal Corpse music under their band name with different song titles. My point is that there are far too many clones in Metal and most of them suck hairy balls. On this demo these guys seem to have what it takes to be good band in the underground. Hopefully they put it all together for their debut and get a label in the
process.