The first time I listened to New York-based blackened death metallers The Dying Light’s Willowtip Records debut The Killing Plan I was less than impressed by what I heard. After letting the disc sit on my desk and collect dust for a few months I decided to shake off the cobwebs and give it another listen.

Upon listening to the release once again I have to admit my initial reaction was somewhat unfounded. The first few times I listened to it I felt the music was generic and dull, but upon further inspection I’ve grown to greatly enjoy aspects of the band’s music, but still feel nothing towards a good portion of the material.

Listening to The Killing Plan is like listening to a compilation album featuring different artists as each song seems to be based in an entirely different style than the last. The album opens up with the amazing title track, a chugging melodic death thrash tune reminiscent of Death in structure and delivery. This is followed by an up-tempo thrash-death track, "All Crowns Fail", with vocals and riffing you’d expect on an Impaled or Ghoul release. Then there’s a rather monotonous and generic sounding death metal track, "Jaws Of Dis (Pazuzu)". This is followed by the solid blackened death track "Freezing The Spirit" with plenty of intricate guitar playing and synths. After this is "Serve The Hidden Masters" which again returns to an old school death thrash vibe with several solid leads. After this is a blackened thrash tune "The Bodiless", followed by a blackened death tune "Haunting Recollections" and topped off by another Death-esque punisher "The World Is Sinking".

On the whole, the album is solid and the musicianship is top notch. The riffing of ex-Cattlepress guitarist Joe Capizzi and Brandon Diaz is on par with the top technical death metal acts on the Willowtip roster, and their dual vocal assault is, for the most part, very good, as is the bass work of Eddie Ortiz. The drumming of ex-Dim Mak/Ripping Corpse/Burnt By The Sun skinsman Brandon Thomas is solid and compliments the music well.

The song writing itself is hit or miss. Tracks, like the title track and "Freezing The Spirit", are amazingly well played with solid structure, whereas "All Crowns Fail" and "Jaws Of Dis (Pazuzu)" are completely skipable. Overall the majority of the album is very solid and should keep the average fan of Willowtip technical death metal acts very happy. In the end, I’ve got more good things than bad to say about The Killing Plan and do intend to play at least a handful of tracks many more times in the future.

Written By: Teufel