When you think of good British metal, what you're usually thinking of is the least rubbish; the ones who at least have a stab at something innovative and fail miserably, the best looking, or perhaps the most prolific in a dreary little town that has spawned little else. Nobody really cares - they go through the motions of support and then happily skip off to watch the latest hypetacular US titans dropping by on their twenty-quid-a-ticket arena tour.

Malefice are the exception. From their crushing debut album Entities to their fierce live show, they are undoubtedly a band who can stand toe-to-toe with the big guns. Extreme yet accessible and sacrificing none of the credibility in order to sound good, you don't need to be a chin-scratching muso in order to enjoy it.

Formed in 2003, yet only really getting their act together over the last twelve months, Reading metallers Malefice have evolved into a polished, professional unit as comfortable onstage with brutal underground stalwarts like Akercocke and Gutworm as they are the more commercial, yet hard-edged, unit-shifting sounds of Sepultura and Chimaira. As much one for the kids in the oversized Slipknot t-shirts as the discerning metalhead, Entities is a powerful and polished mixture of pit-filling groove-thrash, jaw-dropping precision, utter brutality and soaring melody.

Had they grown up in Shitbucket, Idaho, they'd be on Headbanger's Ball already.

(Source: www.malefice.co.uk)