God Was Created is the kind of concept album one would expect from the goriest and most Satanic of death metal bands, telling a story of childhood abuse and horrific violence, intertwined with mad philosophical ruminations on the existence and nature of God and questions of divine possession. Reading the lyrics, you would expect to push play and have your mind shredded with dark, brutally fast and technical riffs. Instead, Made For Her Jesus opens with a quiet, insistent intro and a sudden crashing down of a melody that borders on the decadent, flowing above drumming that fulfills the promise of brutality and technicality without taking away from the atmosphere of desperation. This is the full, rich experience that God Was Created delivers.

The dark, brooding atmosphere never gets fully lifted through the rest of the album. Although there are more straightforward passages in tracks like Fantasy From Pain, and a couple which are pure death metal almost straight through (I Must Not Live, The Lord’s Work), these moments tend to take a back seat to the remarkable effects on tracks like She Never Noticed Me. While the lyrics plumb the depths of human darkness and murderous obsession, the music’s heavy three-count beat and the incorporation of string and keys to accentuate the melody turns it into a kind of death metal waltz. I never thought a piece of death metal could make me want to don a ballgown and take a few spins around the dance floor, but Vehemence have somehow managed. The unique effect is like the images of Satan I’ve encountered that paint him as an effete gentleman reveling in the decay of mankind.

The surprising hybridizations don’t end there, however. I Didn’t Kill Her opens with a riff that wouldn’t have sounded out-of-place on a Paradise Lost album, then drops it for one that sounds like it could have been written by a Gothenburg melodeath outfit, then subsequently stolen and recycled by an American metalcore band. These variations never last more than a single song, and to call God Was Created a doom-death, melodeath or gothic album is to miss the richness that absolutely epic quality in which it revels.

Nathan Gearhart and Mark Kozuback’s split vocals are used to excellent effect, with Gearhart’s lower range, sonorous growl giving an anchor point for the brooding atmosphere and a sense of power behind the more straightforward death metal passages. The pinnacle of the twin vocals comes in Christ, I Fucking Hate You, when the nameless subject of the album’s story is given voice to his torment. Gearhart and Kozuback’s multi-layered cries of “Christ, I fucking hate you!” seem to be able to drag God Himself down out of Heaven to answer for the crimes imagined in the subject’s – I hesitate to call him a protagonist, as there’s really nothing redeemable about him at all – fevered mind.

Unfortunately, Vehemence has gone through lineup and stylistic changes since God Was Created, so it’s unlikely they’ll produce another album like it again. Even the following album, Helping The World To See, is far more straightforward death metal than God Was Created, lacking Jason Keesecker’s keyboards that were used to such great effect in She Never Noticed Me. Still, it’s a great album for people looking for something that pushes the boundaries of death metal and what it’s capable of, and a rewarding experience for anyone who takes the time to listen.