Friday Is a Good Day For Death Metal

Malevolent Creation - Retribution (1992)

As it turns out this whole week has been good for Death Metal. Actually, ever since hearing the new Arsis record and then finding the Cannabis Corpse record I have pretty much not listened to anything else (Well, some Sufjan Stevens oddly enough. I was listening to Suffocation and then Sufjan comes on and I swear, that dude is a tear jerker. One minute my head is being shredded into little digestible pieces of flesh and the next minute im listening to acoustic music and its hitting me hard. anyway)

So, here I am sitting on this immense album from Malevolent Creation which, along with Heartwork, Arsis and Cannibal and Cannabis Corpse and Converge has been my steady favorites for true misanthropy throughout the week. It is a little known fact that I spend most of my week making graphics for baby clothing. Yes, that is what this badass does for a paycheck. I draw little elephants surfing, monkeys playing guitars and the occasional giraffe driving in an off road vehicle. You get the picture. Its no wonder I listen to such fucked up viscerally disturbing tunes. There is a sort of reciprocity to the whole idea of making cute graphics for the newest beings on the planet whilst synonymously listening to music about being mutilated and ripping entrails from a virgins cunt.

Malevolent Creation get the plays because along with being brutally heavy and uncompromisingly grim they have a great vocalist and sick groove to their style. Now while a band like Converge or Immolation (or lets say Meshuggah too, for arguments sake) can pummel with razor sharp guitars and frantic atonal time distorting attacks there is something to be said about a riff. Its what your head latches onto long after a song is played. And while Malevolent Creation dont push the envelope in any direction they make up for this lack of artistic egotism by bluntly hitting you over the head with riff after luscious riff of downtuned palm muted guitars. They know how to use the Slayer arpeggio guitar strumming style so well known to the genre. Its when they hit a mid paced lurch that you just cant help but smile and think that this shit was made for floor punching. While Malevolent Creation cant claim to have invented this awesome breakdown they have certainly learned to use it with bludgeoning force and damn near every hardcore band with a breakdown has also realized the immense potential in making your listeners feel like they could stand up to god and karate chop him in half.

As an interesting side note Malevolent Creation was originally from Buffalo, home of the mid paced chug, before moving to Florida to be with their blackened brethren. They also have an adept grasp of the ubiquitous double bass drum. No death metal should be without it.

Enjoy.

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Its Friday, I had a busy week, hence no posts. This nice long weekend we have should prove fruitful in that regard. In the meantime, I have started a Last.fm account in part to put one of those little charts in my sidebar so people could see what my habits are, but also to learn more about my own listening habits. So, if you care, add me up, whatever the deal is, and have a great fucking weekend!