...SIŁA I PIĘKNO MUZYKI TKWIĄ W JEJ RÓŻNORODNOŚCI


..::OPIS::..

Originally released by Metal Blade Records on June 4th, 2002, God Was Created breathed new life into U.S. Death Metal scene that had become boring & stagnant and would lay the foundation for a new generation of bands to come. No band had been able to successfully bridge the gap between the more melodic European style and the more brutal U.S. sound until this release.


“Gather round, I have a story for ye. Back in 2002, a Phoenix-based death metal group called Vehemence released an album called God Was Created, a work that escaped widespread popularity to essentially become the little engine that could – a cult classic of the genre, if you will. Far from conventional, Created had an odd sound that was melodic without a hint of Gothenburg, preferring instead riffs that combined the open-strummed hardiness of Arghoslent with the evocative melodies of Intestine Baalism. More importantly, it showed a band tossing aside genre conventions to let blossom their bizarre vision and ambition. A concept album about a young man’s fatal obsession with a devoutly religious schoolgirl, Created combined acoustic strumming, sullen spoken word, and guitarwork that alternated between demented and achingly gorgeous, all into an hour-long journey of sexual Jesus fantasies and necrophilia.’

– Angry Metal Guy

“This record is a must for fans of extreme metal. Even those who are not into the brutal death style will still be able to find something they like in “God Was Created”. It is one of those death metal releases that sidesteps sub genres and just offers good music. This record can appeal to any Dark Tranquillity fan as much as it can to any fan of Nile or Cannibal Corpse. I truly believe this to be without a doubt the best extreme metal release this year!”

- Metal Bite


Vehemence's 'God Was Created' is untouchable. It is without a doubt the greatest album that the style of melodic death metal ever turned out. It is musically flawless. This belongs alongside 'Altars Of Madness' and 'None So Vile' in the pantheon of death metal classics, despite its position of relatively little popularity, at least compared to those LPs. This lack of greater recognition makes absolutely no sense: Vehemence was greater than nearly all other metal, especially on this album, and I've never fully understood how the quality was never quite recognized. Vehemence was very critically acclaimed, and some people, like me, have professed their love for the album, and yet they seem not to have ever attained their rightful place in the greater death metal community's perception of what the genre's greatest albums are. And with music like this, there's quite literally no reason for it to be this way.

I can hardly find words to describe how beautiful and wondrously crafted this album is. Every element of this album is just so perfectly in place. It reminds me in a way of Cradle Of Filth's 'Dusk... And Her Embrace', where you can't help but be awed by how carefully and flawlessly constructed it all is. I genuinely believe that even people who hate death metal with a fiery passion could love this album easily, so amazingly is it made. It transcends the boundaries of the genre: not through music, per se, but through quality that is able to appeal to people regardless of their typical musical tastes. It combines all the best elements of death metal into a single album that destroys most everything else in music. And to imagine that THIS album is one of the pinnacles of death metal, one of the most overflowingly melodic and emotional albums I've heard in any music at all, is even more amazing. It breaks a thousand rules and somehow comes out as a perfect example of what all melodic death metal should be. It is perfect in every way.

Vehemence truly understood what melodic death metal was supposed to be. It's not supposed to be stripped of its heaviness or brutality: the melody is supposed to ADD to the music, not subtract, and that's precisely how Vehemence used it. This has precisely zero in common with Gothenburg melodeath, latter-era Death, or Cynic, because while 'God Was Created' is unbelievably melodic at times, it is still first and foremost a death metal album, and Vehemence never forgets that. It's always raw, if not instrumentally, emotionally, and it always maintains power no matter how mellow the music itself is. It's not a remarkable album because it did something new. It's a remarkable album because it did everything it SHOULD have done, and did it perfectly. There's never a moment on this album where the band puts something unnecessary in out of some feeling of obligation or on a whim. They knew what elements would result in a great album, and they went and composed it. It's a work of pure, undiluted art, and the fact that it's so under appreciated is a crime.

Here's the secret about this album, though: it's really just pop rock translated into death metal. If you strip away the distortion, the metal drumming, the unclean vocals spewing blasphemous lyrics -all the things that make this a death metal album- you have what is essentially pop rock. This is still obviously a melodic death metal album; that much is undeniable, as is that Vehemence is a death metal band. But the melodies and structures of the music are actually all pop-based, and not very death metal at all beyond the obvious aesthetics. 'True' death metal, even in its most fragile and melodic moments, never gets quite this easy on the ears, and this is a major thing that sets 'God Was Created' apart from other melodic death metal albums: it's ridiculously easy to listen to due to these poppy aesthetics. I'd wager that a good part of your enjoyment of this album is based on your ability to push aside preconceived notions of how death metal 'should' sound, and, though I am very loathe to use the word, all elitism towards the 'purity' of death metal as an art form. The music here doesn't invalidate Morbid Angel or Cryptopsy; it just goes in a different direction, and there's no reason to feel threatened by it.

Take the very first song on this album, 'Made For Her Jesus'. The opening acoustic melody could easily appear in mainstream music, though it is darker and more minor key than most. Then, when the music ignites in full, with bombastic drum accents and a quick flurry of bass and snare leading into the main rolling rhythm of the song, the sinuous lead guitar is clearly neoclassical in nature, and laced with melodies that are instantaneously classic just because they're so ubiquitous. All the melodies on this album feel familiar, but you'll probably never place them because they don't actually appear elsewhere. It's just how natural everything sounds: all the melodies are ones that SHOULD have been written long ago, even if by some twist of fate they weren't. But back to this song: it's brilliant. An instant classic of death metal, changing tempo, mood, and texture constantly, ever shifting in new, exciting, and beautiful directions without ever losing sight of the structure of the song itself. Every note is flawlessly and carefully composed. Melodic death metal literally does not get better than this song.

Or perhaps it just might. Vehemence's most legendary track, 'She Never Noticed Me', is up next, and it's quite possibly the pinnacle of Vehemence's catalog. Sublime is the only word for this song: the upward spirals of heart wrenching guitar, the stunningly dynamic drumwork, the impassioned vocal performance, the subtle orchestral backing, it's all absolute genius. How has this song not been written before? Everything's so perfectly in place and naturally constructed that it seems to have sprouted from the very air itself. It's the sort of song that master pop songwriters struggle to perfect over the course of years, and there's NINE MORE SONGS OF EQUAL QUALITY on this album! How are these guys not heralded as songwriting geniuses? How have they not been DISCOVERED more!? It's the sort of album that I can only describe through massive streams of uninterruptible, overly enthusiastic cursing. But even that fails, because you can't really describe this album. You can attempt to get your arms around the enormity of the genius at work here, but you'll never really get it. You simply have to hear it.

Like all melodic death metal albums, 'God Was Created' is all about the guitars, and they're the best guitars melodic death metal has ever had. Go beyond the fact that they're beyond awesomely played, that many of the riffs are extremely technical (without ever losing songwriting, melody, direction, or atmosphere), and that they're supremely stylized and dramatically played. The fact of the matter is that this album has essentially the best riffs composed in music. I can think of MAYBE eight other albums with riffs this brilliant, and even those are questionable as hell. Generally, most bands have a few truly great and brilliant riffs per album, and a bunch of mediocre to good ones. The riffs on 'God Was Created' are ONLY in that first category: it's like Vehemence cannibalized all the best riffs from the greatest unknown melodic death metal bands in the world and put them together to create some sort of superalbum that can't be overcome by anyone. And above the ordinary brilliant riffs, the top ten percent of THOSE can't even be comprehended by mortal ears. The worst Vehemence riffs are the best riffs of other bands.

There's at least one section in every song on this album that's completely mindblowing, and Vehemence are generally smart enough to put in near the beginning or the end and completely destroy your soul. On 'Made For Her Jesus', it's the opening distorted riff. On 'Made For Her Jesus', it's the fast sort-of chorus. On 'Fantasy From Pain', it's once again the opening section. On 'The Last Fantasy Of Christ', it's the acoustic portion. You see a pattern getting established here? THEY'RE ALL AMAZING! Add to this the fact that the first block of four songs is even better than the rest of it and you can't even process how good this album is in the best moments. The rest of the music adds greatly to it, but if this album was nothing but guitar it would still be completely fucking brilliant on every level. The drums are spectacular as well: very dynamic, with a great sense of control over volume and timbre. It's deliberately overplayed yet unobtrusive, with lots of small flourishes added to make it that much more interesting. The vocals are excellent as well, employing rich growls and throaty screams that are massively memorable and very well employed. In all honesty, though, it's hard to compliment anything when the guitars are present: they just override everything else in excellence. You know all those little lead riffs that occur in many of today's melodic death/metalcore bands? Well, remove the influence, and you have an album packed with those. It's awesome on every level. There are tremolo riffs, chug riffs, atmospheric riffs, technical riffs, every kind of riff and each individual one is a masterpiece.

There is one last element that makes this album absolute genius, though: the lyrics. Much has been made of the fact that 'God Was Created' is, at least in part, a concept album. This concept is primarily illustrated through the brutally beautiful lyrics that are employed. They are of an extremely unique style: the subject matter is often very violent or pornographic, but often illustrated in very clinical, technical terms. Juxtaposed with the impassioned delivery of the vocals and the melodramatic melodies of the music itself, and a very unique style emerges. I don't know how many bands could pull off screaming 'My hand moves to my scrotum' over a depressive tremolo riff and make it not sound ridiculous, but Vehemence makes one. It's amazing just how memorable some of the lyrics are: you'll find yourself singing along with 'She Never Noticed Me' rather quickly, and the cleverness and subtlety of the lyrics is essentially without par in metal today: 'Sometimes/I notice/A bruise/On her face/Or her swollen lip... But most oft/I gaze/At the cross/Which hangs/Between her breasts...' Somewhat prosaic when written, but utterly compelling when meshed with the music.

I could go on for dozens of pages about why this album is so great, dissecting every riff and lyric and drum beat of every song on 'God Was Created', but the result would be essentially the same as not discussing the album at all. The brilliance of this release is unquantifiably masterful on every level, and should absolutely be viewed for what it is: a classic in music, and the very acme of melodic death metal as a whole. This late group of virtuosos deserves much more attention than it ever received at the hands of the public, so do your best to change this. Get a copy of 'God Was Created' and love it like I do, because I'll be damned if I can find anything better than this. Melodic death metal is dead, and 'God Was Created' is the dagger in its heart. Inexorable.

Noktorn



..::TRACK-LIST::..

1. Made For Her Jesus 5:58
2. She Never Noticed Me 7:00
3. Fantasy From Pain 6:05
4. Christ, I Fucking Hate You! 5:02
5. Lusting For Affection 3:39
6. The Last Fantasy Of Christ 5:23
7. I Didn't Kill Her 8:55
8. God Was Created 5:55
9. I Must Not Live 6:12
10. The Lord's Work 5:34



..::OBSADA::..

Mark Kozuback - Bass, Vocals (screams)
Andy Schroeder - Drums
Bjorn Dannov - Guitars (rhythm, acoustic), Guitars (lead) (tracks 4, 6, 7, 9), Songwriting (tracks 1-9)
Nathan Gearhart - Vocals, Lyrics
Jason Keesecker - Keyboards, Piano, Songwriting (track 2)
John Chavez - Guitars (rhythm), Samples, Guitars (lead) (tracks 3, 6, 7, 9), Songwriting (tracks 2-7, 9-10)




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vr_RAPiIm8



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