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I'm quite a big fan of this bands early works. Their debut The Ten Commandments, as well as it's follow up Retribution are masterworks of brutality. Vocalist Bret Hoffman has a truly unique voice that is completely inimitable.

They're one of those bands that have been around forever, & not overly appreciated. Yet they've been around forever & continue to flourish. Guitarist Phil Fascina is actually a pretty amazing riffmeister. They're had quite an impressive list of contributors to the band: in the Drummer chair - Alex Marquez from Solstice, Divine Empire, & Demolition Hammer; Dave Culross from Suffocation, Incantation, Mortician, & Disgorged; and Derek Roddy who's also played in Nile, & Hate Eternal. Guitarists include Cannibal Corpse's on & off again Rob Barret, also of Hate Plow & Solstice.

I will admit that after 93's Stillborn their material got a little sketchy. However since their Fine art of Murder release they've been much more consistent. Their latest Doomsday X while it ventures towards some melodic territory, also is very reminiscent to that Retribution era sound. Just ass kickin fast & hate filled!


http://www.myspace.com/malevolentcreation

Awesome band. I have their discography.

Malevolent Creation has definitely been the only under-rated act among the Florida-DM pioneering legends. Yet, I can even see why that is so. I mean, I have the entire MC career catalogue of records, except Joe Black (though I've heard that too), and I gotta say that I'm completely divided and feel hot & cold about their output, so far. They either had me floored with a few of their mind-blowing releases, or just badly let me down with some of the others that I felt were either just average, or downright sucky.

Lemme summarise by saying that Brett Hoffman used to be, for a long time, in my personal Top 3 favourite dm vocalists in my early days as a dm enthusiast. He was one of a kind, as was Chris Barnes or Frank Mullen, or John Tardy or Ross Dolan and a few of their peers in the galleries of amazing growlers in this godly genre. The Fasciana/Barrett guitar duo was utterly and uniquely cool to my ears (I also hugely love Hate Plow and Solstice, and some of the other bands that MC's all-star crew have been at). Phil Fasciana is a remarkable death metal guitarist and despite being MC mainman all along, is also arguably the most under-rated member of the band. Or maybe that's just me to see it that way. I've seen MC 'live' only two times, and on both occasions, despite idolising Brett, I remember staring at Phil's heroics on lead guitar, most of the time.

Now, my MC rankings of favourites, go:

Retribution (invincible classic, enuf said)
Eternal (loved the all-round, awesome extremeness of this release)
The Ten Commandments (yet another landmark death metal debut disc)
Envenomed (loved Brett's return and good form, on mics, and the musicianship of everybody else, Dave Culross on drums, included, on this excellent disc)
The Will to Kill (the only one with Kyle on vocals, that I really enjoyed)

Of the rest, I did enjoy Stillborn, which despite all the dissing and hate (some of it justified, some really not), I actually liked a fair bit, for the music. I also couldn't really get into Warkult and Conquering South America, though I like a bunch of songs off both albums. But I honestly found discs like In Cold Blood, Joe Black, The Fine Art of Murder (with Brett Hoffmann), and yea, even the disappointing Doomsday X, to be mostly very sucky efforts that I just don't like much at all.

So, Malevolent Creation is an obvious hit n' miss band for me. When they were at the top of their game, they sounded inspired, immense and inimitable---when not, they did sound very ordinary, near-generic and awfully boring.

But I'd still wanna go to watch them play live, today. That's the kind of legacy they have, and hey, I'm still a fan of theirs.

Yeah I can agree on the spotty releases when Jason was fronting the band. I was never entirely sold on that guy for Malevolent's vocalist - great bass player though. Brett was just too original. Although Eternal has a couple moments that aren't bad. Joe Black less so, but there's a couple decent tracks there.

I do think Fine Art of Murder was a decent effort. Although it's missing bass guitar from the mix, so it lacks a little needed punch. But the songs are still good on that one (imo).

Also the news just came out the other day that the guys are re-recording some of the Stillborn material for their next release. That album wasn't high on my list mainly due to the sound of the album. So I am hopeful some of that material will get a little better treatment.

Ha, WG, I gotta tell you that even I was initially thoroughly put off by Jason's out-of-place 'hard-corish' vocals on Eternal. But, I loved the musical intensity and extremeness on Eternal so much that I could look past Jason's vocals---and later his vocals even seemed to fit in, alright, I suppose. I even learned to tolerate and later somewhat like Kyle's long stint on vocals, too. Of course, Brett was always the genuine article on MC's mics.

I honestly found The Fine Art of Murder just very lethargic, and dull, overall. Brett, for one, sounded strangely tired, weak, uninspired on vocals. A lot of the songs seemed to be rather too 'accessible' and somewhat tame than what I'd expect from MC. I sure felt queasy about the closing track.

And oh, that's some great news about Stillborn. I always thought that record actually had a lot of killer musical material, that was badly, unforgivably marred by the horrendous production that, sadly, rendered Brett's superb vocals to hoarse, inaudible whispers and hisses. Ughh!.what a let-down that was. Stillborn absolutely merits a complete re-recording and re-release. That record sure got short-changed and I'm one fan that feels hard done by, because of that. So ok, I'd still be content to hear at least some of those songs given an adept make-over and tacked onto a future new record. I'll be there to buy it, in a heartbeat.

Ha, I totally forgot to mention how exactly a year ago, I had discovered and promptly bought a 'live' album release by MC, orginally recorded live in Los Angeles, in '98 or '99, and eventually officially released in 2008. It features Hoffmann, Fasciana, Barrett, and Gordon Simms on bass, and the awesome Dave Culross on drums. Warlock, I'd urge you to buy, borrow or simply seek the opportunity and time to spend the full hour listening to this seriously superb Malevolent Creation performance. How I wish it was finally released as a proper DVD this time, as it was originally intended back in the day. We fans deserve no less, surely. Oh, the album's called Live at the Whiskey a Go Go

MC did however release an almost 100-min long DVD, later that same year ('0, called Lost Commandments . I had watched most of it at a friend's house back in April, but I have yet to buy it myself. But I know I will, cos it's a cool compilation (with a great set-list) of two separate, full shows of '04, and '07. MC has also, needlessly, released a couple of 'Best of' compilations during their career, the latest of which was this year, called Essentials covering three albums, Eternal, In Cold Blood and The Fine Art of Murder, in their entirety. As much as I never liked or bought 'best of' releases by any band, I found this latest 3 album cd-compilation to be particularly pretty weird. I don't see any great value of this release----the committed fans most probably have the albums anyway, and 'casual' newbies aren't very likely to snap up a 3-disc set of full albums. Anyhow, what I'd love for them to do instead is to get back in the studios and start writing new material for an all-new record, next year.

Yeah I picked up the live CD from 98 when it came out. And yeah it's pretty great. The Lost Commandments DVD I rented just this week matter of fact. I was a little less then pleased with the sound quality of the 07 performance. But the set was at least pretty good. I rented wondering if it was worth a buy, and I decided to pass on it just for the sound issue. If L.A. ever comes out on video that one I'd be much more into for sure.

Invidious Dominion is out now & kills!!!

Really? I've actually heard a lot of bad things about it already. Honestly, I wasn't even planning on buying it, but I'll have to check it out now.

Sounds great to me. Hoffman is sounding totally certifiable, & the riffs are angry. Production is full & grindy. Other then the fact that they seem to have a song with the word Dominion on every album since Retribution, this one is solid. I mean the bass guitar could be a tad louder but thats all the fault I can find.

It's nothing new sounding. I mean you could make an argument that it's the same album as Envenomed and a few of the other Hoffman fronted albums. But there's sure as hell nothing wrong that I can find. Actually the guitars sound like they're tuned to standard pitch on most of the material, so thats something a little new for them. It sure as hell delivers what I like. Check out the 2 cuts on their myspace. Those will give you an idea.