Review by Daniel for Malevolent Creation - Stillborn (1993)

By 1993, Buffalo death metallers Malevolent Creation had managed to build themselves a really strong following in, not only the global metal community, but also my own household with both Ben & I having been very impressed with their first two albums. I’d first discovered them through their 1991debut album “The Ten Commandments” which I found to be a very solid example of thrashy US death metal indeed. Their 1992 sophomore album “Retribution” would see Malevolent Creation dropping most of their early thrash leanings for a more pure death metal sound that would offer me even more appeal than their widely acclaimed debut, even if it still stayed just a touch behind the leading players in the US death metal scene. These positive experiences gave Ben & I a lot of hope that the band would manage to finally step up to the tier one plate with their next release though so we wasted no time in picking up “Stillborn” as soon as it hit the shelves. Sadly, I recall my initial listens to be a touch disappointing though, mainly due to a lackluster production job. With so much great death metal around at the time I saw no reason to persist with “Stillborn” & it would quickly find resigned to the annuls of history. I haven’t found any reason to return to it since however I recently noticed some very positive online reviews for it & found myself wondering if I’d been a bit hasty in drawing judgement which brings us to this… my first revisit of “Stillborn” in literally decades.

My first impressions upon reigniting my “Stillborn” flame were one of significant optimism. Hhhmmm… sure, the production job isn’t wonderful but it isn’t in any way unlistenable either & I’ve certainly heard a lot worse. The rhythm guitars are a bit muddy & the drums have a bit too much high end & the snare sounds a little wishy washy at times, strangely seeming to change from song to song. The volume between the tracks on the Spotify version of the album is a little variable too which would seem to be a mastering issue. In saying all that though, all of the instruments are in balance & easily identifiable so I found that I could forget these flaws easily enough, especially since the quality of the song-writing is of such a high standard.

Yep… I did just say that. In fact, I’m gonna go one step further by gushing a little bit about just what a great death metal band Malevolent Creation were at the time. The professionalism in the riff construction, transitions & overall compositional work is absolutely top notch & sees the band playing very much in my ball-park of choice. I just love this sort of shit. It’s brutal enough to get my blood pumping but maintains enough of an understanding of the importance of melody to ensure that each piece remains memorable & catchy. Front man Brett Hoffmann’s death growls are a brilliant call to arms for fans of this style of music while the guitar work of Phil Fasciana & new kid on the block Jon Rubin (formerly of Monstrosity) is excellent. Where things fall apart a bit is during some of the blast beats sections though with drummer Jason Blachowicz struggling for control & timing & the production job not allowing the cohesion the band would usually be used to achieving.

Thankfully the song-writing is well & truly strong enough to overcome any flaws that “Stillborn” may suffer from. There are no weak tracks included although “Geared for Gain” does suffer more than the others from those blast beat issues I just mentioned. Opener “Dominated Resurgency” sits right up there with those from the previous two albums (i.e. “Premature Burial” & “Eve of the Apocalypse”) as Malevolent Creation’s finest works to the time & was a fantastic way to start the record. The title track & closer “Disciple of Abhorrence” aren’t far behind either & have really surprised me with just how classy they are. The remainder of the tracklisting is all of a very solid standard too so I very quickly found myself realizing that I had indeed been a little hasty in judging “Stillborn”.

This is quite clearly a more significant record than I’d given it credit for. The fact that I could remember so much of the album without having listened to it since the mid-1990’s speaks volumes for its depth. Perhaps the production issues may give the tracklisting a more "samey" feel than is actually the reality but if you give it time you’ll find that the class in the arrangements shines through. In fact, I’m gonna go so far as to say that I enjoy “Stillborn” just slightly more than “The Ten Commandments” these days & it gives “Retribution” are run for its money as top dog too. Is this just a guilty pleasure for someone like me whose musical allegiances so clearly fall into the same space as the one Malevolent Creation are playing in? Possibly but I can confidently say that this is a seriously underrated release that I should have given more of a chance back in the day.

For fans of Monstrosity, Deicide & Sinister.