Resolutely traditional, old school Florida death metal with a modern production, iIn other words, for fans of the genre and band it is an absolute winner
“The 13thBeast” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. End The Torture 2. Mandatory Butchery 3. Agony For The Chosen 4. Canvas Of Flesh
5. Born Of Pain 6. The Beast Awakened 7. Decimated 8. Bleed Us Free 9. Knife At Hand 10. Trapped Inside 11. Release The Soul
The Review:
Malevolent Creationare certainly one of death metal's old school elite and even with powerhouse vocalist Brett Hoffman gone, the band (Phil Fasciana and able cohorts) press forward. Lee Wollenschlaeger is a fine death metal vocalist, as is demonstrated by his opening growl on “End The Torture”- and he brings an almost NYHC aggression to his delivery. Once again, the sound is razor sharp, the production suitably brutal, the sound is timelessly death metal.
As is standard (now and then) the drums are triggered and thus audible in their intricacy. The sound is pro-toolsed and the performances are spot on. These days, you would be hard pressed to find the endearing amateur aggression present on some of the biggest bands' debut recordings, but what you get instead is machine like precision born of experience.
There are blasts aplenty (“Agony For The Chosen”), some very thrashy moments (“Mandatory Butchery”), plenty of shifting tempos (“Canvas of Flesh”) and all of these elements rearing their heads at various times in most tracks. Over the course of eleven tracks there is no real relaxation time- just straight ahead death metal. This is, though, so what did you expect?!
Try out “The Beast Awakened” if you want a flavour of the best elements of the record in one track (it slays!), but if you like Malevolent Creation you are pretty much guaranteed to like this album. Is it their best? To some listeners it will be, to some it will be “another” good MCalbum. That the band are keeping quality control high and are still putting out impressive records is highly commendable and something that cannot be said of many old-school bands.
That there is nothing new here goes without saying- “Decimated” would fit on any of their albums past or present- but death metal is a taste you develop and if the bug has bitten you in the past, suffice it to say that this album will satisfy all death metal needs and wants you may have.
As the album progresses through “Knife at Hand”, “Trapped Inside” and “Release The Soul” you will know exactly what kind of album this is: resolutely traditional, old school Florida death metal with a modern production. In other words, for fans of the genre and band it is an absolute winner. Enjoy.
Fans of Hooded Menace, Serpentine Path and traditional Floridadeath metal like Obituary or Malevolent Creation can't go wrong here; this is a great example of the doom/death genre and surely one of the musically darkest albums you could pick to play out the winter.
“Grotesque Offerings” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). House of Gripping Gore
2). Night Gallery
3). Spells of the Necromancer
4). Evil That Haunts This Ground
5). Black Candle Séance
6). Creature Feature
7). Into The Crypts
8). Murderous Mr Hyde
9). Last Drop of Blood
10). Final Resting Place
The Review:
More doom/death of the darkest order from these dwellers of deepest... Florida. Darkness does indeed drip forth from opener “House of Dripping Gore”, but that is not to say that the likes of “Night Gallery” don't swing fairly mightily. In amongst these seven minute epics, there are some sprightly interludes (“Spells of the Necromancer”, “Into The Crypts”, “Final Resting Place”), but for the most part it is a sprawling and pitch black listen.
The song titles really do say it all here; “Evil That Haunts This Ground”, “Black Candle Séance”- deathly and doomy stuff. It is not without humour- “Creature Feature” is a fine and flighty song title and the lyrics fit nicely- but how much more black can the music be? The answer is, of course, none! The tracks across the record are mostly slow and creep forward with purpose- great riffs, some superb lead work and even guitar melodies here and there. There are changes of pace here and there- “Last Drop of Blood” is pretty fast and furious (and superb), but for the most part there is more doom than death here, I think.
Fans of Hooded Menace, Serpentine Path and traditional Florida death metal like Obituaryor Malevolent Creation can't go wrong here; this is a great example of the doom/death genre and surely one of the musically darkest albums you could pick to play out the winter.
Hi, you wanna know about us?
