Malevolent Creation
The Ten Commandments

THE REVIEW

In 1991, the year which incidentally is when I was born, a band from Buffalo, (NY) released their first full length and, along with other big names of that era, helped write the history of Death Metal.

I'm talking about Malevolent Creation. The American band, then composed of Bret Hoffmann on vocals, Phil Fasciana and Jeff Juszkiewicz on guitars, Jason Blachowicz on bass and Mark Simpson on drums, produced a remarkable record. Despite not being among the most violent of that year, like "Butchered At Birth" by the monsters Cannibal Corpse or "Effigy of the Forgotten" by Suffocation, it is characterized by a particularly raw style, rough and heavily influenced by the Thrash Metal of Possessed and Slayer. Hoffmann's voice, for instance, isn't the typical guttural growl of the aforementioned bands, but it is still an excellent raspy voice, acidic in certain tones and dark, very dark. The rhythms, furious and violent, are at times interspersed with brief but violent mosh breaks that make you shake your head frantically.

Introduced by a splendid cover designed by the great Dan Seagrave (the same who designed Left Hand Path by Entombed or Effigy of the Forgotten by Suffocation and many other Death Metal album covers), and produced by Scott Burns, a necessary step for Death Metal Bands of that era, "The Ten Commandments" is a bombardment, a storm, a cataclysm of heavy guitars, fast and sharp, fast and precise drums and a pachydermic bass, creating an indestructible wall of sound on which Hoffmann, unwavering, proclaims gruesome splatter tales. After the dark and ominous intro "Memorial Arrangements", chaos begins: "Premature Burial", "Remnants Of Withered Decay", and "Multiple Stab Wounds" are the first three frenzied shards of a furious and insolent Death Metal in which Hoffmann literally strains his voice and his words, since his growl is not very deep, carve into the eardrums with malice and brutality. The intro of the paced fifth track "Impaled Existence" is angry enough until it reaches the middle of the song where the vocals are filtered with an odd effect and the background rhythm triggers a frantic and furious headbanging. The song is a lava flow of mid-tempos and Death/Thrash outbursts. Truly evocative is the thunder in the background towards the end. The pairing "Thou Shall Kill!"/"Sacrificial Annihilation" is overwhelmingly violent, between the two the latter is my favorite track on the album, with the beautiful brief bass intro at the beginning amidst a condensed form of almost Brutal Death rhythms alternating with more Thrash-like ones. Bret Hoffmann delivers devastating aggression: "I am your...DESTRUCTION!!". The initial riffs of the following eighth track "Decadence Within" are beautiful, which, along with the subsequent "Injected Sufferage" and the epic "Malevolent Creation" close off the album with dynamite, making it truly wicked, vicious, and brutal.

A real blow to the head, as well as a must for all lovers of Death Metal and all of Extreme Metal.