Russia’s Experimental/Technical Brutal Death Metal band 7 H.Target return after a 9 year hiatus, since their killer third album in 2014 0.00 Apocalypse.  Yantra Creating was supposed to come out at multiple different times prior to now, but due to a multitude of issues is just surfacing now.  Since the last album, they have filled the vocal slot with the current singer from Katalepsy– Mr. Igor Filimontsev.

The main staples that makeup 7 H.Target Mikhail on drums and Alex – Guitars, Bass, and keyboards continue onward and upward.  The continued experimental influence is toned down in spots and the album cover is once again extremely striking and quite killer with the Tetsuo themes.  I really enjoyed the band’s prior releases with the industrial/mechanized moments and incorporating with the brutal death metal approach was not only bizarre, but the band became one of my favorite brutal death metal bands out there since their 2010 debut ep Japan Body Hammer.

Yantra Creating sees the band expanding on their prior sounds, but mainly going for a straight forward brutal death metal approach with longer songs.   7 songs in 35 minutes, so the songs are quite long in spots and “Aghori” starts with a brief intro and then right into the monster blasting and the production is devastating.  Squealing pinch harmonics and monster riffs too.  The blasting and growls at the 2.40 section are terrific and once the song ends you will say, hell yeah 7 H. Target is finally back in action.

“Askeza” is next and is over six and a half minutes – quite a long song for a brutal death metal song.  The mid-paced heaviness, some 808 bass bombs, and suffocating slams at the 40-second part then back into the blast well I did not know if I should slam or headbang. The time changes are abrupt and some terrific drum rolls.  Some melodic moments in the 3.40 section with guitar harmonies, and guitar solos and then shifting to mid-paced heaviness and this is kind of a new direction the band has taken.  They’re not known for being melodic, so I welcome the changes as well as the atmospherics.  The 4.50 part definitely feels like Fallujah to me and then back into the grinding heaving slamming heaviness.  Stay with the song, it has a lot going on, but by no means is it boring.

“Shiva Yajur Mantra” is an excellent instrumental and you all know I hate these things on death metal albums.  But the sounds of India and Bangladesh and instrumentation and various noises really knocked my socks off.

“Brahmastra” takes over next with gutturals to open the track then into a blast, then an abrupt monster slam part then right into a blast.  Squealing pinch harmonics take center stage to body slam you into a million pieces and that is what happens..  The growl at the 3.50 part destroys as the song shifts into a tech death metal stylized slam part with some polyrhythms that will knock your head off and proceed to play Dunk A Head In The Basket game all damn day.

“Meditation” ends the album with all sorts of noises, burps, sounds and brutal and at times, just like the rest of the album, chaotic blasting. Stop and start blasts and some heaving slams.  What a great way to end the album.

Yantra Creating from 7 H.Target is a damn fine brutal death metal album that showcases the band continuing to expand their sound and experiment.  Some of those prior industrial moments I do miss, as they are really not evident on this, but the other experimental changes with melody, the instrumental and song structures continue to push the band forward in breaking away from other Russian brutal slam death metal bands.  I always found this band exciting from their killer album covers to their interesting songs.  Welcome back 7 H.Target, this is a bruiser of an album!

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