Album review: Creak – Depth Perception

Misery can be suffocating. It damn nearly is on this colossal debut from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne newcomers Creak. It’s there in song titles like Doomed and Harrow, Hare In The Woods and An Endless Black. It’s carried on every note of the lurching, down-tuned riffs that overwhelm listeners when they first hit ‘play’. It’s hammered home by vocalist Jack Dunn’s tortured opening repetition of ‘I can’t take this. I can’t take this. I can’t take this…’ on Restless Dreams.

Every time it feels like we’re about to tumble over a precipice, however, Depth Perception tightens its grip and pulls us back. Jack has spoken about pouring the dread, pain and glimmering hope he experienced while his mother battled cancer into these songs, and we’re with him for each wrenching turn. Stylistically, we’re in the same ballpark as fellow Brit-metallers Graphic Nature, churning the bombast and unnerving melody of heavy nu-metal in with the brutality of metalcore, but there’s something about the willingness to confront the deepest darkness to wring free its subtle shades and textures that evoke Knocked Loose, too.

With ex-Loathe guitarist Connor Sweeney reprising production duties, having overseen 2020 EP Bitter Picture, the layers of electronic texture build into some serious atmospheric foreboding. And stunning centrepiece Left To Heaven – imagine Slipknot’s Prosthetics reworked by Deftones – throws every other track into stark relief. By the eerie, quickfire closing salvo of I’m Not Alone In The Dark and A Head Full Of Rain, it’s clear there’s no way out of Creak’s sonic nightmare. But their twisted fanbase should relish walking with them through it for years to come.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Graphic Nature, Knocked Loose, Loathe

Depth Perception is released on August 18 via Prosthetic

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