Band:	Maledicere
Album:	Leave Only What Is Fit To Burn
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	June 18, 2011
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Intro
02. There Are Wolves
03. Blood Of The Lamb Upon Our Hands
04. Interlude
05. Harvest
06. Hail The Black Faith
07. Interlude
08. What Is Fit To Burn
09. Interlude
10. Transcendence And Death's Bloom

It's really hard to discern what's all that new anymore. It feels like I've heard a lot of similar black metal to Malediceres Leave Only What Is Fit To Burn plenty of times before, but when it comes to listing direct examples, I come up with nothing. Yes, folks, it's another one of those bands that can't really be defined as groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination, but it's just a job well done upholding some already well established traits.

Admittedly, looking at the title, I was expecting something akin to Destroyer 666s Cold Steel... Wrong. Instead of being a purely riff-based speed attack, it's more like Wolves In The Throne Room, with none of the hippy-trippy nature focus, and more of the evil attitude typical to a lot of black metal. It's actually a bit odd, because the guitar work is mostly of the wall-of-sound variety, as opposed to distinguishable riffs, yet the production seems more built toward an up-close, riff appeal sound. It's not a bad thing, when trying to list the drawbacks of the album, saying "Well, they're playing like Wolves In The Throne Room, but the production is more suited to Taake" isn't the first thing that comes to mind. Oh yes, the album is filled with enough blast beats to keep it sounding angry, but the band really stamps out more of an identity for themselves with their winding, doom-ish segments.

That's all from a point of view of a nit-picking critic. From the viewpoint of anyone who doesn't have to write an entire review, it's a black metal album. Just that. It's not bad at all, in fact, I'd take this over any number of indistinguishable black metal acts out there, but it still doesn't leave too great of an impact. It's a luke-warm black metal album that I can neither recommend, nor recommend against.