Malevolent Creation - Dead Man's Path

Artist: Malevolent Creation
Release Title: Dead Man's Path
Year: 2015
Label: Century Media Records
Genre: Old-School Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Dead Man's Path
2. Soul Razer
3. Imperium (Kill Force Rising)
4. Corporate Weaponry
5. Blood of the Fallen
6. Resistance Is Victory
7. 12th Prophecy
8. Extinction Personified
9. Fragmental Sanity
10. Face Your Fear

With a legacy back to the genre’s inception, Floridian death metal legends Malevolent Creation have endured harder and longer than most with one of the strongest collection of albums in the scene that truly continues on here. Graced with returning drummer Justin DiPinto and a charged focus in the five-year gap between releases, the groups’ celebrated twelfth full-length album is released October 2, 2015 on new label Century Media.

As is to be expected here, this one is a crushingly heavy and dynamic old-school style death metal album straight from the swamps of Florida, giving this a mostly stereotypical sound and approach. The album has the rabid, fervent near-thrash riffing that manages to evoke plenty of technically-proficient rhythms and ferocious charging patterns that are given plenty of room to breathe within the tight patterns. This old-school approach is quite prominent as the band dives through rabid thrash rhythms at frantic tempos, and is merged with a tight backbone of sprawling tempos to offset the aggression with deep, churning riff-work and relentless drumming. This is the essential part of the band’s core sound where it's a strong overall mixture between the rabid thrashing with some crushingly heavy yet slowed down rhythms that give their riffing plenty of room to breathe and yet still remain a vital part of their charge as it all wraps itself within that identifiable tone in the music featuring the agonized swampy patterns of the genre’s creators. With such a strong, even mixture between these styles and generating quite an enjoyable attack by alternating these tempos so well in the running order that the album tends to swarm through its paces with seeming ease, it’s quite an effective blast that offers up very little to dislike overall here except in one minor area that continually showcases itself in the music. This one is so strongly and effectively evocative of their sound that it’s really hard to tell the tracks apart at times as they loose themselves within that familiar blur of swampy riffing and technical thrashing that’s been a part of their work from the beginning, and it can cause this to drop off at times. Still, it barely registers at all and doesn’t impact it much.

By getting this overall stylistic and fervent approach to the forefront in yet another utterly strong and dominating release, there’s so little to dislike here which mainly comes from being too similar to their past works that it still remains a top choice for any fervent fan of their past catalog, old-school death aficionados or those looking for more of the same from these legends.

Score: 96/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:

http://www.cmdistro.com/item/36958

Seven Kingdoms - Decennium

Artist: Seven Kingdoms
Release Title: Decennium
Year: 2017
Label: Nightmare Records
Genre: Power/Thrash Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Stargazer
2. Undying
3. In the Walls
4. The Tale of Deathface Ginny
5. Castles in the Snow
6. Kingslayer
7. The Faceless Hero
8. Neverending
9. Hollow
10. Awakened from Nothing

Bound to continue their hard-working style, Floridian power/thrashers Seven Kingdoms have brought along plenty of dedication which manages to infuse the traditional blend of power and thrash metal with a fine blend of professionalism and maturity. Following the previous years’ EP release and a full five-year gap from full-length albums, the groups’ Kickstarter-funded fourth full-length was released January 30, 2017 on Nightmare Records with a reissue May 5 on new-label Napalm Records.

Firing off almost immediately, it’s quite apparent from the onset that there’s a much more pronounced attack that yields some of the most impressive work of their career. This is mostly based around tight, thunderous thrash rhythms and paces while packing in sparkling melodies and a grandiose choral approach that effectively mixes their work together, fitting this one with plenty of stellar work between these sections. This one offers up the kind of fiery riffing volley at those higher tempos that there’s plenty of fireworks generated by the frantic patterns bringing these churning thrash efforts alongside the furious melodies and stellar vocal dynamics that is quite apparent throughout here. Not nearly as impressive but still wholly enjoyable, when the band slips down into steadier, more mid-tempo realms there’s a rather marked dynamic here where the album prefers going for stellar chugging and thicker grooves in their rhythms to offset the melodic firepower. That leads into some rather fun and enjoyable efforts where it keeps the fire and bombast with a slightly varied approach that renders this one incredibly enjoyable overall. However, these being the primary functions of the album, that does end up being the lone factor against this one since it runs into familiar ground rather quickly with each other, tending to come off rather similar and being filled with overly cliched moments as a result since it relies on these same two formats for the majority of the tracks. It isn’t that detrimental on the whole, but it does lower the album.

While it does come across somewhat familiar and rather one-note in a series of familiar tactics throughout here, none of that detracts from what is a rather fun and endless series of enjoyable up-tempo thrashing power metal anthems that will certainly appeal to all fans of their previous work as well as fans of power/thrash in general.

Score: 90/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
https://shop.napalmrecords.com/seven-kingdoms-decennium-cd.html

Caveman Cult - Savage War is Destiny

Artist: Caveman Cult
Release Title: Savage War is Destiny
Year: 2016
Label: Rotting Chapel Propaganda
Genre: Black/Death (War) Metal
Tracklisting:
1. F. F. F. (Intro)
2. The Bludgeoning
3. Iron Scourge
4. Ceremonial Disembowelment
5. Altar of Crushed Enemies
6. La eterna guerra sangrienta
7. Caveman Cult
8. Barbaric Bloodlust
9. Death Before Surrender
10. Supremacy of the Savage Hordes
11. Caverns of Atrocity

From the sunny side of Florida, war metallers Caveman Cult has done nothing but raised hell throughout the land as they bring their savage attack out of the underground. Released May 17, 2016 on Rotting Chapel Productions, this power-trio continues to bring the goods as they capitalize on their previous demos with their full-length debut.

Despite the sunny disposition of their home-state, this here is anything but as there’s a lot of bleak, ugly work on display here as the group’s focus on war metal aptly demonstrates. Tight, militaristic marches and ferocious rhythms are the hallmark of the groups’ focus here, swirling around ugly riffing and short, blistering tracks filled with lockstep drumming alongside frantic and utterly devastating rhythm patterns filled with truly pummeling, quite raw-styled riffing for the majority of it’s work here and it really conjures a bleak, ugly soundscape. This relentless, air-tight assault doesn’t give up one iota throughout here nor does it allow there to be any breathing room at all with the condensed tracks and ferocious patterns giving this such a full-on frantic attack which scores quite well here, though it does manage to prop up several minor areas within this one. The biggest issue is that the album is so short with only a few tracks here that really manage any kind of significant length out of them as so many of the songs are short, barely a minute long and go by in such a blur as is common-place in the genre that it doesn’t really allow for any kind of chance to let the music really stand out. Though the primitive attack here does come off rather well, it’s not all that well developed to really allow it the kind of chance that soaking in the rhythms allows here because this is such a short release and it doesn’t make for a truly immersive attack with the effort really failing to distinguish itself here. Otherwise, this one doesn’t really have much else wrong with it.

Though the brevity might be a small problem for this one, the fact that there’s quite a bit more that it gets right makes this a rather pummeling and somewhat enjoyable debut release that sets them off on a solid note that will appeal wholeheartedly to black/death metal fanatics as well as war metal aficionados who can’t get enough of the style.

Score: 78/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
http://cavemancult.bandcamp.com/album/savage-war-is-destiny