Malevolent Creation - Warkult

[dill_the_devil]

Malevolent Creation - Warkult
Nuclear Blast - NB 1293-2 - 2004
By Philip Whitehouse

Malevolent Creation are a band that has always seemed doomed to continually stay just below the radar of the death metal collective - even after 15 years of existence (which included a period of tenure on metal uber-label Roadrunner, before they started chasing the nu-dollar) and countless albums of brutalising death metal, they're constantly swimming upstream. Still, it hasn't stopped them releasing some cracking albums, and Warkult is no exception.

Following on from The Will To Kill, this release continues the band's exploration of more dynamic and melodic songwriting nuances to go along with their more usual cocktail of hyperspeed drumming, dense and brutal riffage and water-tight rhythmic interplay. Kyle Simmons returns on vocal duties, and his guttural yet legible growls and occasional screams are the perfect counterpoint for Phil Fasciana and Rob Barret's grind-crush-and-kill riffage. Dave Culross makes a welcome return to the Malevolent Creation drumkit, and quickly makes his presence felt - the relentless pace of 'Murder Reigns' never even fazes him, making this one of the album's most shredding, skull-crushing efforts.

Later tracks allow a little more melody and dynamism to show through, and the war/military themed lyrical polemic on display combines with this to occasionally give this release a hint of Bolt Thrower's past glories. The album concludes with a cover of none-more-obscure 80s death metal cult legends Hobbs Angel Of Death's 'Jack The Ripper', which is pretty damned faithful and also gives away how much Malevolent Creation were influenced by that band in their early days. All in all, a startlingly crushing death metal effort that will hopefully see this excellent Floridian group gaining a higher profile.

9/10

Malevolent Creation Official Website
Nuclear Blast Records

 

[Scourge of Malice]

Yeah, I never knew why this band wasn' t very popular in the metal scene. No one really talks about them. Good album, better than Will to Kill i think

 

[Chasm]

Hmm, I don't know about that. They're just as popular as other death metal bands like Incantation or Cannibal Corpse, at least around here anyways. Also, I always considered Retribution an underground death metal classic right next to Effigy Of The Forgotten, Here In After, or Butchered At Birth.

Anyways, I'll probably be picking this up sometime later this week.

 

[dill_the_devil]

Nah, Malevolent Creation have never had the kind of sales or recognition that the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Vader, Deicide etc. have... maybe the constantly changing line-up puts people off? It must hinder touring activity...

 

[Chasm]

I'll agree with you that they've never been a top-selling album death metal act compared to the bands you mentioned, but again, they are far from unknown. Hell, I remember a few years back seeing "The Fine Art of Murder" for sale in one of those BMG CD Club stamp sheets that came in the mail. Maybe it's different with the recent popularity of all genres of metal and all these new foreign death metal bands, but back when I started getting into extreme metal and more importantly, the underground death metal bands in the scene, Malevolent Creation were at the top of the list of essential brutal death metal bands to check out.

By the way, I picked this album yesterday and it plain smokes. Great album!

 

[dill_the_devil]

Yup, it's a top-notch disc - it's been more or less superglued into my CD player lately, which is playing hell with my review schedule... hehehe