With The 13^th Beast, Malevolent Creation‘s thirteenth full-length album (kind of an obvious title there, a bit lame too, if I’m being honest) the band, full of newcomers in the likes of  bassist, Josh Gibbs(ex-Solstice), drummer, Phil Cancilla(ex-Narcotic Wasteland), and vocalist/guitarist, Lee Wollenschlaeger(Throne of Nails), manages to sound quite vicious and engaging. The new material is full on, balls out, intense and in your face, raging death metal. Super tight and hellaciously furious. Album opener “End the Torture” gets things going in a fierce manner after a brief intro about someone’s legs, arms, and head being removed. The track really does do a stellar job at setting up the pace and tone for The 13^th Beast as a whole; it’s full of angst and Floridian groove and really does capture that old-school flair of the first few albums. More than a few times, “End the Torture” reminded me of “Eve of the Apocalypse”, from their monumental Retribution album, and that my friends, is no small task.

Follow up track, “Mandatory Butchery”, showcases M.C.’s influential knack for Slayer-esque intensity. I think many would agree that if Slayer was a death metal band, they’d be Malevolent Creation. There really are no true highlight tracks  to be found on The 13^th Beast. All of the album’s tracks rage in similar intense bouts of pissedness, though none truly stand out with any awe or “holy shit” moments above each other. Though not necessarily a bad thing, but not a great one either. I did find “Trapped Inside” to really capture that aforementioned Retribution vibe. The song is an urgent rager that could have easily fit on said album.

I have to admit to being quite surprised to learn that out of eleven tracks, eight were solely written by new frontman, Wollenschlaeger, with only two tracks being penned by Phil Fasciana(“Born of Pain” & “Release the Soul”), and one being co-written by the two(“Mandatory Butchery”). The songs sound like Malevolent Creation though, which is quite a testimony, surprising or not. In fact, “Born of Pain” and “Release the Soul” are probably the least sounding M.C. tracks on the album. Both songs utilize some slower pounding tempos mixed with a bit of upbeat thrashiness here and there that help break up some of the album’s similarity(“Born of Pain”) and end up being a wise choice to end the album on(“Release the Soul”).

I’m curious if the tracks penned by Wollenschlaeger were written strictly for M.C. or if they were songs he already had and reworked them to fit Malevolent Creation. Especially, since the album teaser released at the end of 2017 is not only not on The 13^th Beast, but sounds nothing like the album or M.C. for that matter. Either way, hats off to a job well done, not only on  Wollenschlaeger’s songwriting, but on his vocal presence and delivery as well. He really sounds good on The 13^th Beast, coming off as a damn  decent mixture of previous vocalists, Bret  Hoffmann and Jason Blachowicz, though leaning more towards the Blachowicz vocal camp.

My only legitimate gripes about The 13^th Beast is that while the album is blissfully intense, at 50 minutes it is a bit long in the tooth. After awhile the songs can bleed into each other and cause listener’s fatigue in full on listening sessions. The album could have benefited tremendously by cutting the fat back and making a slightly more compact album. Though depending on if and when M.C. might make a new record in the future, the long run time could actually help satiate fans. I also would have liked to hear a little bit more in the solo department, as most of the leads are performed by bassist, Gibbs, and the better ones are contributed by Solstice guitarist, Ryan Taylor.

Musically, M.C. have never really strayed from or played with their initial begat sound, and nothing really changes here. The band is still the same ‘ol Malevolent Creation. Love ’em, hate ’em, or even flat out opinionless on ’em, the band has released a pretty damn good album that really does an admirable job capturing the vibe of the group’s first five albums. Sporting a Dan Swano mix and mastering, the album is crisp and tight as a gnat’s ass, with a genuine pounding urgency to it, like a mixture of foreboding menace and brutal rage. Again, accolades need to be given to the line-up of The 13^th Beast, for not only crafting a quality death metal album, but really managing to make it feel like a proper Malevolent Creation album. I think Hoffmann would be proud to see where the band is going. Where it ultimately falls in the group’s discography obviously comes down to the listener and his or her favorite Malevolent Creation era, if they have one.

Blatantly obvious from the get-go is the unrelenting anger coursing through Invidious Dominion.  From the vomit-raw vocals of Brett Hoffmann, to Phil Fasciana and Gio Geraca’s sickeningly evil riffs, to the constant earhole-blasting of Gus Rios, the malevolence (pun intended) is palpable.  Also helping in this department is the clear yet not overdone production courtesy of Erik Rutan.  As mentioned before, Invidious Dominion may not be quite as big-sounding as its predecessor, but it’s got just the right level of semi-shrouded clarity needed for a release of this nature.

While it would be possible to take up an entire page delving into the details of each track, it would also be a huge pain in the ass, and tedious to read.  So let’s stick with the highlights.  After a short intro, “United Hate” kicks the door in, giving listeners a taste of the new(ish) Malevolent Creation crew.  With low, grinding riffs and merciless drumming, it sets the pace for the rest of the album.  “Slaughterhouse” is a fucking barnburner, complete with sick death-groove and a chorus section worthy of endless haircopters.  “Compulsive Face Breaker” needs to be mentioned simply for its brilliant name.  Then there’s also “Target Rich Environment” and “Corruptor,” both of which rip and do the band’s name justice.

Malevolent Creation have shown that they can stick to their guns and still whoop your ass with every release they’ve had in the past 10 years, Invidious Dominion included.  This isn’t an album for your metalcore-loving girlfriend (unless you’re trying to convert her, and in that case, fucking go for it), and it certainly isn’t for the weak-willed — this is unadulterated, unfiltered evil in musical form, coming from a band that hasn’t always had the same members, but has (essentially) had the same logo for the past 20 years, and has always had the will to kill.

Anyhow, 3 years after the solid Warkult and now with 4/5ths of the Stillborn lineup back, including vocalist Brent Hoffamn the band is back for their lauded 10th album and as with pretty much their whole discography we have some solid sometimes damn good, sometimes average but never truly great death metal of a pure Flordian ilk.

Granted, the break from ree-core and overly noodly tech death metal is refreshing as Malevolent Creation stomp, blast and growl their way through 12 stout tracks of old school American death metal with little flare or deviation and it will please most of you death metal cavemen out there.

Ironically though, I find Hoffman to be the weak link (maybe he should go back to his awful Down the Drain project) as his strained mid range rasps lack power or force (I thought Kyle Symons, who makes a guest appearance on the blistering “Bio-Terror”, was actually a better frontman) but new/old drummer Dave Culross (Suffocation, Hateplow, Incantation, Gorgasm) more than makes up for it with a damn steady performance in tracks such as fine opener “Cauterized” and the steady, classic gait of “Strength in Numbers”.

However, despite the relative enjoyability of the albums old school charms, though there’s a lot of predictable death metal filler on Doomsday X, and lot of forgetful tracks that sound like a band trying to forcefully relive their glory days, and unlike Obituary’s forthcoming Xecutioner’s Return, falls a bit flat on these ears. Plus the Mick Thompson (Slipknot) solo on “Deliver My Enemy” seems no more than a desperate reach to the kids even though I’m sure Slipknot has dropped Malevolent Creation as one of their favorite bands in numerous issues of Rolling Stone and Revolver.

To their credit though, ten consistent albums is a pretty impressive accomplishment especially while their peers have broke up, reformed and even sucked, Malevolent Creation (and mainly Phil Fasciana) has kept the band on an even keel for 17 years, and for that I have to give Malevolent Creation some respect, even if their form of death metal has grown a bit stale.