Malevolent Creation - The Ten Commandments (1991)^{Release ID: 3772}

Malevolent Creation haven't always released good albums, but their first couple were cracking. The Ten Commandments has all the ingredients of a great death metal album. The riffs are constantly superb throughout with a whole heap of variations and memorable sections. The leads are also quite good although not amazing like Morbid Angel etc. Drummer Mark Simpson if exceptional, with tight blast beats, double bass kicking and change ups aplenty. Vocalist Brett Hoffman's vocals seem to split fans with some thinking he doesn't have the necessary growl for this type of music. I personally think they're fantastically aggressive and he has far more range than most vocalists in this style of music. He'd get even better on their next album Retribution as well.

The Ten Commandments is a very American sounding death metal album. It's kind of a mix of Slayer and Deicide, but has a lot to offer of its own. It manages an excitement level that seems to be a bit lacking in the genre today for some reason. Add to all this that it has a fantastic album cover (by the consistently brilliant Dan Seagrave) and you've got a great if not particularly original death metal release. Highlights are Premature Burial, Multiple Stab Wounds and Thou Shall Kill but all of these ten commandments are worth respecting!

Buffalo death metallers Malevolent Creation were a pretty big band in my household back in the early-to-mid 1990's. Both of the band's first two albums were very positively received by both Ben & myself & I feel that I perhaps even rated them a little more highly than many of my peers did due to their very close stylistic alignment with my own personal taste profile during that period. 1991's "The Ten Commandments" was certainly a little thrashier than 1992's wonderful "Retribution" sophomore record but the production & general feel fall firmly into the Florida death metal bracket with some polished performances, sophisticated arrangements & an aggressive tone which perhaps isn't too surprising when you consider that the album was recorded with legendary Florida death metal producer Scott Burns at the iconic Morrisound Studios.

While "The Ten Commandments" is unquestionably a death metal release, the thrash influence I mentioned is obvious throughout & it gives the record a slightly different vibe to Malevolent Creation's more dark & deathly sophomore album. The vocals of front man Brett Hoffmann aren't quite as deep as other death growlers & wouldn't sound all that out of place on a Sadus record to tell you the truth but they're extremely effective nonetheless & are one the album's clear strengths in my opinion. The instrumentation is often pretty thrashy too & sees Malevolent Creation combining the death metal of Deicide & Cannibal Corpse's 1990 debut full-lengths with some of the more brutal thrash metal releases like Dark Angel's classic "Darkness Descends" or Demolition Hammer's first couple of albums. As many of you would likely know, I'm a big fan of well-executed blast-beats & drummer Mark Simpson does a stellar job at producing a super-tight battery of flailing snare-drum hits here which appeals to me greatly. He doesn't overdo it though which gives each blast-beat section added weight & emphasis. The guitar solos of Jeff Juszkiewicz are pretty accomplished for such a young band too so Malevolent Creation were a highly professional act for the time.

"The Ten Commandments" is a very solid release that should please all fans of US death metal. It's only lacking a few more genuine classics with the savage "Premature Burial" being the only cut that I'd place into that category. The rest of the material is consistently strong though so it's hard to be too critical, particularly for a debut release. "Retribution" would see Malevolent Creation stepping up to the next level though & it's always been my pick of their back catalogue. Regardless, "The Ten Commandments" comes highly recommended from this ol' death metal nut.