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Malevolent Creation: Eternal

28/07/09 || Habakuk

Three years after the disappointment that was “Stillborn”, shake-ups in the line-up and being kicked out of Roadrunner Records, this albums marks Malevolent creation’s return to form and begins phase two of the band’s history, one without Brett Hoffmann on vocals and an overall changed sound. The intricate groove of “Retribution” and frantic speed of “The ten commandments” has been replaced by crushing, dark, heavy, death, metal. Replaced by – not really evolved into, because the sound is fundamentally different from their earlier outputs. That doesn’t mean that the quality hasn’t made it through the transition, but the overall vibe has vastly altered. The guys just kick ass with their other foot, wearing a very heavy boot.

Speaking of wearing heavy boots. We all know Marv, right? That big, bad modern day barbarian from Sin City walking through dark back alleys sporting a black leather coat and smashing your head against the closest hard surface if you cross his path – This is him, packaged in death metal form. He might not be the fastest guy around, but slow doesn’t mean less powerful. It just takes a while until he picks up speed, but from the first time you see him coming down the alleyway, you know he’s business. Now read that last sentence again while listening to songs like “Enslaved”, “Hideous reprisal” or “No salvation” slowly shifting up their gears and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

This album is full of vicious and unstoppable groove. You know, not the foot-tappin’, beer-sippin’ kind of groove, but rather one of the jaw-breaking, cunt-punching sort. Its raw brutality gives the album a dark, elemental power. They had probably aimed at creating something similar with “Genetic affliction” on “Stillborn” already, but it took them a couple more years to get the right production to make it work. It’s very bass-heavy, but pretty loud and clear at that. Probably the heaviest production job they’ve ever had, maybe topped by “In cold blood”, but with a lot less treble than that and every other album they put out afterwards. Every instrument can be felt in the overall beating “Eternal” provides you with. Most hits go to the stomach, in case you wondered. Don’t go to Burger King before listening to this.

The guitars form the proverbial everflowing stream, made of thick, pasty, liquid, heavy metal around which the drums, vocals and a couple of solos work their part. Said solos are nothing overly technical, but well-executed. They fit in nicely and break up the low-end patterns, yet never detracting from the heaviness for too long tha’t provided in the form of a mix of slow, crushing riffs, chugging palm-muted thrashing and some hints of the black metal-like tone sequences à la Angel corpse that became a bigger part of Malevolent’s later sound, but on here, they’re still clearly in the death metal vein.

Same goes for the vocals, which are a lot more one-dimensional than on their earlier albums. However, on an album like this, I can appreciate an approach like that of Mr Blachowicz. Gone are the days of vocal lines that are way too long for the riff they’re supposed to accompany (Scr, scrf, scrficl annihiliation!), instead we get deep, short shouts that while not necessarily forming another layer on top of the music weave in nicely with the overall in-your-face heaviness. Some minor variation is given in the form of a distortion effect in the beginning of ‘To Kill’ and by using a couple of samples. This is the first Malevolent creation-album that really uses them, and they help to fill the gap that the Hoff admittedly left a little. Most lyrics are pretty good with bellowed dark, chopped sentence fragments like

Void beyond, hellfilled fate, shadows descend
Shroud of dark, rest no peace, time to end
Blackened dreams , pours black rain
No way out, unfelt pain

that work well with the vocal style and therefore turn out pretty awesome. But then again, at times it all turns to barely-concealed fascist bullshit like Healthy ones will conquer the feeble and diseased thanks to Jason Blachowicz’s interesting stance on brain use. Very cunning way of exchanging the last line of “They breed” from Always wanting always taking/ what was never yours/ Some day you will feel the hate/ that you gave to others to _ …some day you will feel the hate/You fucking N*ggers_. He should have changed it to when I shout out racist shit over my death metal like that’s gonna make any difference yet it heavily suggests that I should go fuck myself. Hoffmann would’ve fitted that one in. But then again, his lyrics never were an issue. There must be something in the water they give those death metal bassists. Seriously, fuck this shit. Keep it out of death metal, and while you’re at it, keep it out of life.

The bass is basically a deep rumble following the guitars. It sounds very good when you hear it, but it blends too well with the heavy guitars to really shine. Such is the price you’ll have to pay for a great deal of heavy death metal albums, unfortunately. Dave Culross on drums proves a worthy replacement of Alex Marquez and might even be a much better choice for the album as it is. With Culross, you know you get quality and he knows how to become one with an album’s sound. Awesome and varied drumming throughout the whole album, even without taking into account the powerful short solo beginning to “Blood brothers”, which sets in stone that this guy knows how to use a drumkit. He’s got a great sense of rhythm, pummeling double-bass and a mean-as-fuck snare sound to come with it.

Last but not least, the cover shows some ghostly dude in the dark surrounded by smoke. The subdued colours fit the dark, heavy mood of the album and, as a bonus, it looks bad-ass.

A quite unique and atypical album in Malevolent creation’s back catalogue, it seems to me “Eternal” doesn’t really get the exposure it deserves. To me, however, it’s up there with the celebrated first two albums as one of the peaks of their career. Full-on death metal like it should be: It’s got blast beats and brutality, but just enough mid-paced fun to make you enjoy your bulldozer ride from Pensacola to Miami. If it were for me, they should have kept the direction they took from here to “In cold blood” instead of turning the treble-knob.

8,5

Information
Released: 1995
Label: Pavement/System Shock
Website: Malevolent creation MySpace
Band
Jason Blachowicz: vocals, bass
Phil Fasciana: guitars
John Rubin: guitars
Dave Culross: drums

Tracklist
01. No salvation
02. Blood brothers
03. Infernal desire
04. Living in fear
05. Unearthly
06. Enslaved
07. Alliance or war
08. They breed
09. To kill
10. Hideous reprisal
11. Eternal
12. Tasteful agony

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