Malevolent Creation - Warkult

*=Staff's pick	Dead March Preemptive Strike* Supremacy Through Annihilation Murder Reigns* Captured Merciless Section 8 On Grounds Of Battle Tyranic Oppression* Ravaged By Conflict Shock And Awe Jack The Ripper (bonustrack)*

Genre	Death Metal	Kyle Symons	Vocals
Tracks	12	Phil Fasciana	Guitar
Runningtime	44 Min.	Rob Barret	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Gordon Simms	Bass
Release	28 June 2004	Dave Culross	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Slayer

Malevolent Creation bring forth their eleventh album with Warkult, and this is in my perception exactly how old-school American death metal sounds. Their first album was released in 1991 and the band was formed in 1987 and it is from that part of the eighties where the music from Malevolent Creation is gathering its roots from. With the fresh sound and the modern production their violent death metal never feels like it is out of date, their older kind of metal with the modern feeling makes it all feel very natural.

The endless grinding and riffing much reminds me of early Slayer and even some of the older Sepultura at parts. Aggression is the main ingredient but the sense of melodies is in some small parts also included with the fast and dark death metal. With the thrashier parts I kind of sense a reminding of the more evil side of Testament, the grinding supports and carries the music forward as the lead from a guitar is topping the music and produces the flow. Although it gets a bit too repetitive in the end, listen to a few tracks at the time and it is great, but with listening to the whole album at once it looses me as I cant keep up the interest through all of the 44 minutes.

The vocals are obviously of the growling kind and Kyle Symons pushes out the words from way back in his throat, and that is suitable for the music of course. But it also gets to dark and harsh as it tends to be indistinct and it is hard to hear what he is trying to sing since it becomes a mess of screams and grunts rather than words and the music looses some of its flow with this.

Malevolent Creation also looses ground when they lose control over the speed and it becomes to much of grindcore and the flow is once again shining with its absence as the music chops its way forward. That also happens when the pace is getting slower and the doom is coming forward, the weight of their music becomes to heavy to carry with once again no real flow in the music. So stay in the middle guys, since it there you get the best work done with Warkult.

What in my eyes saves the album from becoming a monotone grinding mess is the solid guitar playing and most of all the wonderful leads and solos as in the second track Preemptive Strike for example. And I just love the clicking and galloping drumsound, just as much as the furious double bassdrums that go around your head like an helicopter, but nevertheless this album is best enjoyed in small doses.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	4	6

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Thomas