CREEPMIME: “CHIAROSCURO”

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews a classic of Dutch death metal from a long-defunct band and provides a free download of this out-of-print beauty.)

Ok, this is me finally getting around to a favor that was asked of me all the way back in the summer of 2011.  You might remember my coverage of a now defunct Dutch band I was a huge fan of called Cypher (who were kind enough to provide us with free downloads of their music, including that unreleased EP we helped bring to the light of day).  While I wait for Tobias Borra and gang to resurface with what is essentially Cypher 2.0 (name not yet revealed), Tobias had asked me to check out a band considered to be Dutch death metal legends alongside the likes of Pestilence who were rather overshadowed in their day.  The band has Cypher/I, Chaos/Dew Scented bassist Joost Van Der Graff on bass and vocal duties, so Tobias felt I’d find it extremely relevant to my interests.

The band in question is Creepmime. Information about them is rather obscured and hard to come across (even the Metal Archives page appears to be inaccurate and very incomplete).  Actually, information on them is VERY obscure and nearly fucking impossible to come across.  Wanna know how obscure?  It’s nearly impossible to find line-up-per-album info, including for the album (Chiaroscuro) that’s the subject of this post. This band is so obscure that there aren’t release dates, simply fucking estimates of time.  All I can tell you is that Chiaroscuro came out sometime between late ’93 and ’95.

Creepmime have two albums, this being their second.  They play a style of death metal/proto-deathrash that’s typical Dutch high quality and contains all the signature Dutch death metal elements.  It’s got angular riffing with a sense of panic, lots of doom infusions, and slightly vomity vocals not much different from Martin Van Drunen’s.  A lot of influences are at work here. I would say mostly what you’ll pick up is a lot of Death, Pestilence, Napalm Death, and Atheist.  Things are mostly at an energetic, ballsy, mid-pace, and the music is quite discordant and savage.

Creepmime, at least on this album, rely on powerful grooves that also call back to bands like Nevermore or Exhorder to get the job done for the most part.  It’s the Death, Pestilence, Napalm, and Atheist influences in the riffing that create an interesting combination and a sound I find refreshing and involving, despite how ancient this album is by now.

Oh, and I’m including the album for download, and a few tracks to stream so you can check out the music first.  If nothing else, this is a very badass worth-listening-to piece of Dutch metal history.

DOWNLOAD – CHIAROSCURO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqTlcVY0KC8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_oSFlAKSd8&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT-jLEYB-Gg&feature=relmfu