Texas’ Creeping Death have been on a thrillingly fetid ascent since delivering their 2019 debut full-length, Wretched Illusions. With their furious handle on early ‘90s death metal aesthetics and a hardcore backbone, they’ve built up a following through headlining tours and multiple trips with Liverpool OG’s Carcass. Boundless Domain continues that journey — disgustingly so — but what marks a difference is the ramped-up production value around their sophomore album.

Take the special effects-laden music video for Boundless Domain’s lead single, “Intestinal Wrap”. While featuring requisite live shots of the band working through bomb blasts and death growls, the video also sports a gore-heavy, medieval treatment where warriors spit out goops of blood; there’s a pretty graphic stabbing scene during a castle raid; and without spoiling too much, the song’s called “Intestinal Wrap” for a reason. Sonically, there’s an impressive bombast to how producer Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage) captures guitarists Trey Pemberton and A.J. Ross III’s tones on the track (and likewise through the rest of the release). The riffs fall off the bone with a newfound clarity, each Escher-staircase note descension pumping through the mix perfectly.

Overall, Boundless Domain may be Creeping Death at their most dynamic. With respect to the album title, it does feel like the quintet are exploring unknown territories. Its opening title track, albeit briefly, begins with an unsettling, distortion-less gloom, a choice not yet heard on any of Creeping Death’s releases through MNRK Heavy. That said, vocalist Reese Alavi’s sub-sonic gurgling suggests the act are simultaneously paying homage to death metal’s past while pushing themselves into the future (“chaos embraced in a way so familiar”).

In the past, Alavi turned to fantasy-based online game Runescape as inspiration for their battle-themed wordplay. While similar in approach, they probe at the real-life stakes of the bloody, first century Battle of Carrhae in “The Parthian Shot”. Above a piercing, triplet-metered thrash attack, the vocalist screams of an ancient Iranian squadron soaring out a sea of arrows to stop a Roman advancement (“waves of death rain upon your head”). Few moments on the album land as viscerally, victoriously nasty as Alavi reflecting on those “oozing sacks of lost life”.

While the members of Creeping Death heartily lock into grooves full-force (see the hardcore-styled two-step that begins “Creators Turned Into Prey”), one of their greatest strengths is the contrast between Ross and Pemberton’s lead styles. The latter comes from the Kerry King school of shredding:
unpredictably undulated whammy bar attacks and untamed squeals. Pemberton has called Ross’ approach “more thoughtful,” and throughout Ross brings together speedy-but-bluesy scale-climbs, often with a dose of Kirk Hammett-like wah-wah work (the band are, after all, named after a Metallica
track).

Elsewhere on the ambitious Boundless Domain, a proggier-bent propels the multi-pivot punishment of “Vitrified Earth”; “Intestinal Wrap” sports furious guest howls from iconic Cannibal Corpse frontman George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher; “The Common Breed” is a powerful pulse-pusher with especially octopus-armed drum work from Lincoln Mullins. But there are also a few missteps. In particular — despite the record’s compact, 36-minute runtime — the title track waffles with its minute-plus ambient outro. While it’s not a complete momentum killer, it’s a curious opening gambit.

Boundless Domain nevertheless continues to build upon Creeping Death’s furious foundation, the nine-song release yet another strong outing from the Texas heavies. You could argue there are sicker songs in their catalogue (few tracks perfectly distill their death-and-hardcore-merging approach as 2021’s “The Edge of Existence” single), but Creeping Death haven’t hit their ceiling by any means. Revel in the present, and wonder what metal mania will be pulled out of this boundless domain next.

Pre-order Boundless Domain by Creeping Death HERE