The Will to Kill

As cliche would have it, the apple does not often fall far from the tree. When that tree is Malevolent Creation's back log of reasonable riffing onslaughts and street stalkings, then its fruit must bear fists of frenetic violence. The Will to Kill is the band's 8th studio album, and frankly not a whole lot different than a number of their previous offerings: The Ten Commandments (1991), Retribution (1992), and Envenomed (2000) all come to mind as direct references to the songwriting. Simplistic old school speed pickings parsed with concrete chugging sequences bent on snapping marrow. This album marks the debut of Kyle Symons to the fold, after Brett Hoffman would once again take a leave of absence from the lineup, but unlike Jason Blachowicz who fronted the albums Eternal and In Cold Blood, Symons is quite close to Hoffman in his stark lethality.

The Will to Kill is essentially your 'stock' Malevolent Creation album. Tight performances all around, and a few snippets potent enough to whip your ass into a frenzy, but very little to write home about, and even less to look back upon. There are a handful of tracks I admire: "With Murderous Precision" seems to me what Slayer might manifest if they took a slight turn towards a more brutal death/thrash hybrid, with a central riffing momentum that would have been a solid match for any of the Bay Area gurus' 80s efforts. "Assassin Squad" balances a deadly clinical precision with pummeling breaks that catapult the listener into the pit before the dense thrashing of the bridge and its snaking, feral lead. "Superior Firepower" is another machination of high paced warfare, conjuring ample tension and release through its barbaric notation, and the closer "Burnt Beyond Recognition" is also nothing to limp out on, about as straightforward and sadistic as this band has ever been.

Sadly, like so many of their releases, there just doesn't seem to be enough to launch it to the upper echelon of memorable death metal classics. The first handful of track possess the same canter and brutality of their peers, but they never serve up even one riff that to stake my attention, and later there are tunes like the moshing "Divine and Conquer" with promise potential and then deliver about 50% empty, filler riffs. I think Fasciana and Barrett do a good job of capturing the pernicious pace of 80s thrash (Slayer, Dark Angel) within the more bludgeoning context of Symon's vocals, while Justin DiPinto floors the listener with his muscular expedition. But at the end of the day, I don't just want my ass kicked in such predictable fashion, I want it done with a subtle malignancy, a shred of nuance and distinguished horror regardless of whether I'm listening to tech, slam, old school death, what the fuck ever. The Will to Kill does not peddle such wares, it remains too straight on its slaughter-course, with no element of surprise and very little enduring extremity. Better than a Stillborn or In Cold Blood, but not among their strongest outings.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

The eighth album by Malevolent Creation is a return to higher levels. After the unbeaten, till this moment, The Fine Art of Murder and the blasting Envenomed, this band is again able to deliver us a very good quantity of death metal in this new release, The Will To Kill”. In this new effort, everything recalls The Fine Art of Murder for sounds, songwriting and general attitude and we are again here to enjoy the relentless march of this sincere band in death metal.

This album starts with the uncontrolled fury of the title track that, by the way, shows more incisive and convincing riffs. The brutality and the blast beats are mixed with now catchier riffs to create the first very good song. The furious assault of the instruments is precise and terrifying for power and precision and the always great vocals by Kyle Symons are screamed, angry and really nasty. The stop and go with thrash restarts give more variety to the songs and this is exactly what they needed. The blast beats are often broken by up tempo parts or fast double bass kicks and this is what is great to make these compositions less monotonous.

On the other hand we can always find high impact songs like “Pillage and Burn” or “Assassin Squad” are simply devastating for violence. Even in these episodes something is catchier and more convincing. The great mix of growl and screams at the vocals is just awesome and this is what I like in the new singer. Even the drummer is good and he replaced Culross very well. “All That Remains”, “Superior Fire Power” and “Divide and Conquer” are the most representative tracks here because they all feature great assaults and catchy refrains. The structures are more complex but flowing and the tempo changes are really well-done and stuck perfectly.

Check also out the riffs on “With Murderous Precision” and tell me if there isn’t something more compared to the recent past in terms of variety and songwriting. These songs have the power of the death metal and the variety to not become too monolithic and static. Even the more mid-paced parts are full of odd, dark lines in order to make us enjoy even more the speed restarts with up tempo and blast beats. In “Rebirth of Terror” we have a great progression by the beginning with a sudden stop where the guitars increase their speed and the drums enter to sustain heavy, massive structures of violent music.

I was literally taken aback by this release even if I’ve always thought to Malevolent Creation as a good band. The Will To Kill has the energy and the brutality of Envenomed with the sounds and the structures of The Fine Art of Murder and this mix is lethal, in a good way. This is where the two souls of this band collide to create a really good and violent album.