Creeping Death

Hailing from Texas, Creeping Death merges the crushing, doom-laden brutality of Swedish death metal with the kinetic, neck-snapping drive of classic Bay Area thrash. The band’s debut full-length, Wretched Illusions, surfaced in 2019, while Boundless followed in 2023.

Formed in 2015 in the metal-rich town of Denton and later based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the group was started by vocalist Reese Alavi, guitarist Trey Pemberton, bassist Eric Mejia, and drummer Lincoln Mullins. Alavi embraced hardcore at age 18 after witnessing a pummeling, cramped Tattoo Parlor performance by Dallas thrashers Power Trip. Drawing from classic grindcore and old-school death metal giants such as Bolt Thrower and Grave, and pulling lyrical themes from the massively multi-player online role-playing game Runescape, Creeping Death put out the three-song EP Sacrament of Death in 2016. Their second EP, Specter of War, arrived in 2018, became an underground hit, and eventually drew the attention of eOne, who signed the band later that year. The merciless Wretched Illusions reached listeners in September 2019. Ryan Bram (Gatecreeper) produced 2021’s The Edge of Existence, which contained three new cuts and three re-recorded songs from the group’s first EP. For their technical death metal-forward sophomore long-player, the uncompromising Boundless, the band enlisted Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz.