Band:	Malevolent Creation
Album:	Warkult
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	June 28, 2004
A review by:	jupitreas

01. Dead March
02. Preemptive Strike
03. Supremacy Through Annihilation
04. Murder Reigns
05. Captured
06. Merciless
07. Section 8
08. On Grounds Of Battle
09. Tyrannic Oppression
10. Ravaged By Conflict
11. Shock And Awe
12. Jack The Ripper [Hobbs' Angel Of Death cover] [bonus]

For those of you familiar with my cannibal movie analogy to reviewing death metal albums (check out my Deicide review for more info), I can say that Malevolent Creation is, as usual, right in the middle of the scale. This is to say, although their agression and brutality is often gratuitous, they do also smuggle some amount of artistry and uniqueness into their music. Not much, but its better than nothing.

So what is this element of artistry and uniqueness in this particular release? First of all, its the theme. As the title suggests, this album is fully concerned with war. War is quite a hot topic in today's world and it is very good that a band tries to inform people of its horrors through its music. After all, what better way to describe war musically than by the use of death metal? The other saving element of this album is the fact that in almost every song, Malevolent Creation incorporates some sort of relatively catchy lead or riff which stands out from the constant flow of brutal death. This is nothing new as this band has always been doing this exact thing; however, it keeps the music interesting and allows for the casual listener to actually tell one song from the other. This is a great achievement for a death metal band.

Nonetheless, for all of the positive things I mentioned earlier, this is still Malevolent Creation. They play the same old traditional brutal, slightly technical form of death metal that they always played. Their leads seperate them slightly from the many other bands that play this sort of music but not by much. Its tough to listen to the whole album unless you are really into it, otherwise, it gets monotonous and boring. The particular drummer and vocalist combo on this album is Dave Culross and Kyle Symmons. Those who know Dave Culross will recognize the fact that his style of playing, while forceful and fast, is quite uninteresting and ordinary. Meanwhile, the vocalist, although not posessing the natural charisma of Brett 'true voice of Malevolent Creation' Hoffman is quite apt at both growling/grunting his way through a song and spicing his performance up with an effect or two.

Overall, this album is a standard issue pack of ammunition, with a few armor piercing shells added in for good measure. If you love the sound of war you will find this an ammo pack well spent. Otherwise, its probably not for you...