One look at the cover should give you a hint of what's in store - Antisect style artwork, with celtic knot border; a reaper's scythe - maybe a nod to Behind the Realms of Madness; Amebix-style writing... but for the first thirty seconds, after the needle drops, you might wonder where things are going. Monsters of Man's Creation starts with spoken words with the title of the album's title shouted over some droning background noise that don't give you much hint - but then as the next song, The Forgotten comes crashing in, you realize you were right all along. This is a crushing record.
Lifeless Dark plays straight-up filthy, stenchingly dirty, early UK Crust, with a heavy Sacrilege worship. Complete with impressive guitar licks from CC, thrashing riffs, pounding drums and a heavy, down-tuned low end. Lifeless Dark's demo showed promise but this debut release blew away those high expectations. They do re-record Radiation Sickness from their demo, but the rest of the tracks are new, I think. While this band is great when they're fast, but I like them even more when they slow it down to a crawl - like on the outro of Depth of Cold, Cryptic Remains, or the whole of Side B's opener Medusa - an impressive dirge and my favorite song on the record.
One of the best bands out there - hope to see them some day. First pressing on black.