CREEPING DEATH STAKE

Don’t mess with Texan death metal FORMED BACK IN If you liked Steak Number Eight you’ll love Stake – the same band ON APRIL 23,

2015, Texan death metallers Creeping Death have pulverised the US one state at a time into a putrid pulp. Combining metallic chainsaw riffs with biting hardcore, the most extreme genre on the planet just got more dangerous.

After two EPS, this year they released their full-length debut Wretched Illusions. “Our goal was to improve and build upon the foundation we laid on our Specter Of War EP,” says guitarist Trey Pemberton. “Creeping Death is an intense, unrelenting death metal band, and I think our style combines a lot of different elements at once. We really showcased our cohesiveness as a unit and our improvement as musicians when we were going from SOW to Wretched Illusions.”

As ruthless as it is destructive, the album can easily hold its own next to

2019, Steak Number Eight closed a chapter of their lives that had begun almost 15 years previously, growing from precocious pre-teens playing a local pub showcase into the kind of band that could pack out venues – ably proved when their last two shows sold out in hours. “Those last shows were very emotionally loaded,” admits vocalist/guitarist Brent Vanneste. “We kept going from tears to hysterical laughter; Steak Number Eight was something we had built together for more than half our lives.”

Initially named in tribute to Brent’s deceased elder brother Toby, becoming Stake was less a simple name change the scene’s other significant death metal releases. Is the future of death metal looking brighter?

“Absolutely!” he exclaims. “There’s actually a really badass crop of death metal bands releasing music nowadays – Skeletal Remains, Tomb Mold, Gatecreeper, Frozen Soul… death metal is going hard right now.”

The band ended 2019 supporting High On Fire alongside fellow Texan and more a chance to make peace with the past. “Steak Number Eight had been a public mourning process,” Brent explains. “But telling the story over and over again, I stopped feeling anything about it.”

The emotional weight may have been lifted, but that doesn’t prevent Stake’s debut, Critical Method, delivering a crushing sense of cerebral heaviness, showing they are reinvigorated and ready to conquer the world alongside fellow Belgian breakouts Brutus. Considering their combination of thunderous riffing and cosmic melodies has already captured the hearts of heavyweights Mastodon and Dillinger Escape Plan, we for one welcome our new Belgian riff overlords.

CRITICAL METHOD IS OUT NOW VIA HASSLE natives Power Trip. There seems to be a demand for Southern brutality.

“I feel like we really have our own vibe down here. You just got to experience it,” says Trey, by way of explanation. “We definitely want to make everyone from our home town and state proud wherever we’re at.”

WRETCHED ILLUSIONS IS OUT NOW VIA EONE