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Malevolent Creation > Envenomed > Reviews
Malevolent Creation - Envenomed

Good, solid, honest, working man's Florida death - 74%

erebuszine, April 25th, 2013

Something tells me that Dave Culross is probably happiest when in the middle of an extended blast beat - his arms locking up, muscles aching, his foot about to drop off, etc. I'm guessing that he gets that 'far away look' in his eyes when he launches into those kinds of beats - he has a few to draw on, all at hyperspeeds - and he makes them sound so effortless and relaxed that you can picture him in a sort of trance while his limbs are flailing, i.e. feeling perfectly at home. This album is yet another showcase for his drumming ability, a level of talent which has quickly placed him at the forefront (along with D. Roddy) of timekeepers in the American death metal scene. For whatever reason, after days and days of listening to black metal or 'atmospheric doom' or such things, an album like this really just hits the spot. There are no excuses on this thing: it's not claiming a certain political position or trying to create a movement aimed for or against anything, it's not aligned with x or inveterately opposed to y, etc. It just comes in to maim and kill, like a reaping machine, and doesn't offer any illusions to the contrary. At certain times I just need to listen to a good death metal album... today (and maybe tomorrow) this will do.

This band has been around for a very long time now... I have no idea how old these guys are at this point in time, some of them (vocalist Hoffman and bassist Simms) seem to have aged more than the others, but I remember their demo material, their first album, the admitted-classic second attack 'Retribution' that solidified once and for all the 'pure' Florida death metal sound (a style that bands like Vader later seized on and pushed to even further extremes), and their following releases with something that approaches respect, if not admiration. I haven't been the biggest fan of this band over the years, but I would never claim that they didn't know what they were doing - no, with Malevolent Creation it's rather the case of wondering where they can take their sound and ideas in the future. Frankly, I am amazed they have been able to record so many albums without really changing that much... I believe they have regressed, actually. This album doesn't even come close to matching the technical display of 'Retribution' or their debut LP, but I also know they don't care about such things anymore... I am sure that at the end of the day they just want to write good, well-maintained, brutal death metal songs and not worry about anything else. Fine.

What I'm trying to say is this: if you have heard their material in the past, nothing here is going to surprise you, except maybe for the 'far-looking' black metal melodicism on display in the third song, 'Kill Zone', and some of the thrashier moments on this disc, which seem to be throwbacks to the guitar-playing styles that these guys probably grew up listening to - but which they, so far, seem to have transcended. This album is all about very fast rhythm riffs, an odd schizophrenic solo every now and then, and the human drum machine, Culross, reaching towards Nirvana by snapping his sticks off the snare at blinding speeds. Good, solid, honest, working man's Florida death metal... you know what it sounds like.

UA

Erebus Magazine
http://erebuszine.blogspot.com

Tour de force of habit - 70%

autothrall, May 17th, 2011

After the surprisingly creepy turn of The Fine Art of Murder in 1998, Phil Fasciana and Malevolent Creation would return to the more forceful, banal concrete aggression of their early years upon their 7th full-length, Envenomed. Brett Hoffman's services were once again retained, and the band dialed the brutality back up, sacrificing some of the atmosphere of the previous album for what must be the closest approximation of their debut, The Ten Commandments to manifest since 1991. Pummeling death/thrash grooves collide with Brett Hoffman's brash, lashing serious killer vocals and driving old school speed picking death metal rhythms. The band was working with both the Pavement and Arctic Music imprints for this record, but would this move and their renewed violence brook them their first smash in nearly a decade?

Not exactly. In truth, Envenomed is just another of the band's many releases which hover at the margin of quality without actively disappointing or inspiring anyone. There are a handful of cuts on this album that I truly enjoyed. "Halved" offers far more than the usual dose of Malevolent mysticism through the tyrannical opening sequence, effective hyper riffing, and breakdowns that you can actually feel in your gut. I love the freakish sequence near the close with the shrill wails as the cleaner intro guitars return. "Conflict" and "Viral Release" are likewise a lethal one-two combo delivered deep into the track list, the first a storm of Arabesque brutality with more tight breakdowns, the latter another fresh burst of momentum with penetrating, thick riffs reeking of implied, spooky melody. Also, the leads throughout Envenomed are especially well conceived, especially in the opener "Homicidal Rant". Fasciana and Barrett are on fire within these confines, though it would be hard not to credit Dave Culross' blinding solidarity as the performance of the album.

Alas, the majority of the songs are simply not that impressive. A taut, thrashing riff will emerge here or there, but so many of the guitars during the blast patterns are conjured with forgettable filler notation that fails to sink in. The production is finely balanced for the razor speed and punctuation which the band executes with the best of them, but it's also pretty dry. If one is truly in love with the band's first two albums, The Ten Commandments and Retribution, then this is probably one of the first of their later catalog that I'd advise turning to. It's a similar experience even if the overall quality falls somewhere short of the novelty and songwriting of those formative works. But if one is waiting for that long anticipated knockout blow masterpiece from a band that by this point should have had at least one, it's not to be found here.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Brutal, but a bit repetitive. - 87%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, November 3rd, 2008

Envenomed is more than probably the most violent output by Malevolent Creation. Its predecessor, The Fine Art of Murder album displayed a more complex and catchy if we want, approach to this genre and featured a long length, while with this one we return to the sheer power of Eternal and In Cold Blood, but with a better production. Malevolent Creation are now a well-established band in death metal and you cannot go wrong if you are searching for your daily dosage of brutal death metal with always an eye to thrash.

More or less 40 minutes of music are perfect to enclose eleven tracks that point everything on the sheer assault of the instruments. I’ve always considered this album as an almost grind/death one because there’s no time to rest here and no will to slow down even for a minute. Everything is conceived by crazy minds to be brutal and heavy and “Homicidal Rent” is ready to explode at the beginning of this massacre. The production is pounding and all the instruments are simply devastating in volumes, distortion and power. The blast beats by the always great Dave Culross are furious and relentless, with his maniacal precision.

Even the more mid-paced moments are full of riffs, stop and go and up tempo parts. Some catchy choruses are actually welcomed and they take lots of their catchiness from The Fine Art of Murder album. Brett is always very good at vocals with his raspy, suffered and angry tonality. His vocals are here to stay, branding each passage and part. The guitars work is simply direct, heavy and blasting. In some parts we can find a small spirit to embrace some melodies, but everything in this case is short and we can have a good example with “Kill Zone”. The melodies are sad but they last for few seconds and they are always covered with blast beats and up tempo parts.

“Halved” is bombastic when the blast beats enter after the dark arpeggios by the beginning, while “Serial Dementia” is on total fast tempo with blast beats and simpler, more direct riffage. “Bloodline Severed” is even greater for the break in the middle where the melodies return a bit over a carpet of fast bass drum beats and we can find even a good solo. Kyle Symons does the backing vocals on “Pursuit Revised” and I’ve always loved his growling style (check out his immense work with Hateplow band). The bass notes are more evident and audible on “Conflict” that featured also another heavy quantity of brutality.

The other songs follow the rest of the album and probably this is the main problem of this effort. Everything is brutal yes, but with The Fine Art of Murder this band makes us notice their goodness even during the more mid-paced moments, while in this case we cannot find them anymore. Apart from that I’ve always found something incomplete on the albums by this band, but here the songs are a bit too much similar and the boredom can invade us in some parts. There are really few albums that can be fantastic in this genre from the beginning till the end…don’t get me wrong, this is a good album but I’d have liked more variety since a quite big part of these fast songs is repetitive and doesn’t really stand out from the rest…