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The Vile Domain is the debut EP from Lacerated, a young band hailing from Denver. What we have here is some pretty standard death metal, in the vein of Immolation, Dismember and Cannibal Corpse. The first couple of songs are quite fast and sound cool, with an infernal, deep and raspy bellow, which sounds almost like a bark. They change the tempo a couple of times and slow down, thus allowing their riffs to shine through; this works well at the beginning but, unfortunately, they repeat the formula for every single song and it becomes stale. There are some decent solos here and there, but sometimes they get drowned out by the omnipresent blast beats. In the second part of the EP we get more mid-tempo sections, with chugging guitars that trudge along in a not very exciting way. The highlight of the album is the final track, with some pretty sick tortured screams.

The Vile Domain sounds quite feral, yet somewhat one-dimensional and forgettable. Nothing really sticks after listening to it because it all sounds the same. This band shows promise, but they've got to try and break the mold they've encased themselves in and find their true identity if they're to stand out from the gigantic heap of death metal being released nowadays.