We’ve already had three singles released from Malicious Intent, and the album already seems to be creating a bit of a buzz. Hardly surprising when you dig in and let the rapid fire riffs and battering rhythms assail your ears. Malevolence manage to blend together some absolutely classic sounds with their own hard-hitting take on modern metal.
The opening, and title, track is under two minutes long and is still heavier than pretty much anything I’ve heard this year. If there was some system of measuring heaviness per unit time as a kind of heavy metal density, it would be the equivalent of Osmium. From this one track alone, you know this is an album to be cranked loud with the bass at “liquefy the neighbours”. And it only gets better.
“Life Sentence” had my windows shaking, a song that seems to be led by the four strings of Wilkie Robinson. It picks up now and again in terms of speed, but overall this is one to bang your head to. I guess they were building up to “On Broken Glass” which is essentially an insane circle pit crammed into digital form. There are ten superb songs on this album, but this one stands out above all the others. Combining furious thrash, incredible drops, and an element of melo-something it really hammers into you.
The groove metal influence is cranked up for “Still Waters Run Deep”, while the band throw us another curveball with the clean, melodic tones of “Higher Place”. Seriously, by this halfway point in the album you’d almost be forgiven for thinking you were listening to a compilation release. OK, so “Higher Place” still gets rough and ready but it’s a very heavy rock anthem at heart, widdly solo and all.
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“Karma” and “Above All Else” continue the barrage, the latter featuring Matt Honeycutt’s (Kublai Khan) silken vocal tones. It’s as angry and bitter a song as you’ll find on here. “Do Or Die” opens with a riff that’s just a little bit reminiscent of Hatebreed’s “To The Threshold”, but I’ll forgive that as the rest of the track is just a melting pot of bone-crushing riffage.
A second guest appearance as Trivium’s Matt Heafy pops up on “Salvation” (the two bands will tour the UK together in January). The guitars in this track really stand out, and it’s the perfect fit for Heafy. I wouldn’t say the track was written with him in mind (though maybe it was), but there’s not another song on Malicious Intent where he’d be so much at home.
The album closes, appropriately, with the sounds of “Armageddon”. This one will have heads banging from the outset, and has some huge down-tuned, speaker-shaking moments.
As I said, three singles in and seven songs you won’t have heard yet. If you like your metal very heavy and have enjoyed the videos that are currently out, then you’ll love what else is coming your way. Malevolence are a band that you should be watching out for if you’re not already. Malicious Intent is a game changer for them.
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Malicious Intent is out on May 20th
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