Album Review: Texas Murder Crew - Wrapped In Their Blood
Reviewed by Daniel Phipps
Sometimes a bands name can throw surprises and not really give you the story of their sound, that is left for you the listener to discover. That cannot be said for Texas Murder Crew, the name says everything you need to know about the 6 piece from Dallas. The band which features ex Devourment guitar player Kevin Clarke who played on Devourment’s 'Impaled to Kill' demo along with the legendary full length 'Molesting the Decapitated' provide you with vicious old school slamming brutality in the form of debut full length 'Wrapped In Their Blood'.
Texas will always be considered one of the peak producers of brutal death metal and anything coming out of the lone star state will be highly touted, what Texas Murder Crew offer outside of providing sheer brutality is their use of outside elements in order to add to the sound. Having a stand alone member handling samples allows them to incorporate these elements within the tracks which add another dynamic. The use of piano samples later under the guitars of the track 'Nocturne Of Evisceration' are a really nice touch that works extremely well.
The overall song writing on 'Wrapped In Their Blood' will not win any awards for originality however it’s not a badly composed record. Unfortunately where the record lacks it does not have any really jaw dropping moments either. If you go back and listen to their 2020 release 'Everyone’s Last Breath', this release does showcase some huge moments which I feel are missing this time. Production wise 'Wrapped In Their Blood' has a great sound. The guitars have the right amount of grit meaning they don’t have an ultra clean polished sound that you can find on death metal records nowadays, they have a true honest sound which is a massive plus for me. This leads to the grooves sounding extremely brutal and the straight up shredding being vicious as hell. The drums have a really nice bounce to them with the kicks adding punch behind to really drive the rhythms.
'Wrapped In Their Blood' is a good well written slab of brutal death metal but it really does not have anything that pushes what they are offering further forward to push into that next bracket. That being said it is far more enjoyable than a lot of newer slamming death metal bands who have clear production and no soul in the music. Texas Murder Crew at least have that and fans of the TXDM scene should find this an enjoyable listen.
