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Violence Unleashed is the solo project of the main guitarist from German death metallers Eradicate (Felix Schumacher), and features a session spot from the drummer from Canada's excellent Quo Vadis in this albums recording line-up. Opening with a fat sounding production, it's clear to see the bands main influence from the very off – Cannibal Corpse, in fact the opening track 'Destination : ?' could easily be off a Cannibal Corpse album. However, further into the album, they bring more brutal death metal influences into their sound.

The musicianship is excellent, and at times it gets fairly technical (we're not quite talking Necrophagist technical here, but there's still plenty to get Suffocation-worshipers salivating), however where the album fails is on repeated listens. On the face of things, Spawned to Kill is a perfectly good death metal album, and it does have its positives (Thomas Thede's vocals are badass, and it has its fair share of killer riffs to get your teeth into). However given time to sink in, it soon becomes clear that it doesn't have the replay value you'd hope for. Unfortunately for Violence Unleashed, their decision to play a sterile, over-triggered style of death metal has worked against them, simply due to the fact that there have been so many bands out there playing this stuff over the years that most of it's been done before, and done better. The genre as a whole has just become stagnated, so it takes phenomenal talent to shine through, and sadly for them, they don't do anything out of the ordinary from their death metal by numbers to stick in your mind for longer than a week or so.

So, though it's a fair death metal album at its heart, it's not one you're going to find yourself returning to time and time again for future listens. A CD that's destined for dust collection in the next few months.