Malevolent Creation — Warkult

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…

19 years ago today, the threat of the mighty “Warkult” was upon us!

On this day (June 28) 2004, Malevolent Creation released their ninth full-length studio album, “Warkult” via Nuclear Blast Records.

Overview:

After thirteen years of persistence amidst numerous lineup changes, the ever-changing climate of the music scene, bad business dealings with record label Pavement Music, and a quick stint with Arctic Music Group, Malevolent Creation returned in 2004 with the first album for their then new label Nuclear Blast, entitled “Warkult”!

“…we really slit our own throats with them (laughing)! We never made a penny with all the releases we did on Pavement”… and everyone in the band was always like “what the fuck” ya know? It was terrible being on a label that can’t promote you, did nothing for you and their distribution was ass too.” — Phil Fasciana

The tenacity of guitarist Fasciana (the only remaining original member) in the face of such tempestuous circumstances, while also facing a virtual revolving door of lineup changes gives credence to his dedication to bringing quality Death Metal to fans of Malevolent Creation. “Warkult” is absolutely victorious in that it delivers non-stop, in your face, Thrash-laden, brutal Death Metal. This success is in no doubt, partly due to the contributions of HatePlow vocalist Kyle Symons, who’s raw, throaty delivery was first heard on 2002’s “The Will to Kill”, where he filled the vocal slot left vacant after Malevolent fired Brett Hoffman for alleged drug abuse.

“We had written fifteen songs for ‘The Will To Kill’ album, made demos of all of them for him and he couldn’t even face us, this is how twisted and out of his mind he was, Gordy’s telling us “the dude is a wreck, he’s snorting his fucking brains out” — Phil Fasciana

The album also saw the return of drummer Dave Culross (Disgorged, HatePlow, Suffocation), who had previously appeared on “Eternal” (1995), “The Fine Art of Murder” (1998), and “Envenomed” (2000), but had left the band following the release of the latter.

— “I’ve played with many great drummers but when I play with Dave, he’s just the drummer for our band. We let him do whatever he wants because it just always sounds right.”

“Dave was around for some of our bad business decisions when we were signed to Pavement… and unfortunately he was on just about all of those releases! “So when we did sign to Nuclear Blast we did let Dave know that we were signed to a real label again and you’ll never have to listen to another kid saying they can’t find the record again. But we’re a Death Metal band all we really need is distribution and some promotion and the rest is up to us!”

“When he left (after Envenomed) I feel we lost some of our confidence and it’s always hard for someone to come into that situation and try to play the way he did. But we just got home from a tour (for Warkult) and it was great from the first song to the last.” — Phil Fasciana

“Warkult” was produced and mixed by Kataklysm's Jean Francois Deganais, which I believe helped the band bring the raw and aggressive feel to the albums concepts of war. Of course, much of the themes throughout “Warkult” deal with armed conflict, lead by the album opener, “Dead March”, but we’ll get back to that song in a bit. First, we are going to talk about "Shock And Awe". The thrash-laden riffs of Phil & Rob, accompanied by Culross’ relentless blast-beat attack are as unforgiving as the furious rampage of a Viking Berzerker.

“Shock and Awe” was the first one, written by Rob and I in like ten minutes! We were getting ready to go to South America for the last album and he was hanging out at my house and I had a riff tape, pulled one out and he had something for it and we just played it, then the two of us went to our warehouse and recorded a one song demo without drums. But there were a few changes along the way. After that we all started writing by ourselves and then we ended up getting together eight weeks before we started recording to go over everything, so we wrote it all in like under two months." — Phil Fasciana

Now, Let’s get back to the albums devastating opener, "Dead March" cleaves it’s way through your senses, like an M60 ripping through the forward line of enemy troops. And while many of the songs like “Dead March” are unapologetic maelstroms or pure devastation, others like "On Grounds Of Battle" are like ticking time bombs, that slowly build in energy until the final moment of detonation, and then… “BOOM”!

In conclusion; “WarKult” is nothing short of bloodthirsty and barbaric, and brutally brilliant! — E.N. Wells

Touring:

In support of “Warkult”, Malevolent Creation played many festivals alongside bands like Exodus, Hatebreed and Testament, including; Graspop, Fury Fest in France and With Full Force in Germany along with more shows in Germany and Switzerland.

Critical Reception:

In his review for AllMusic, Eduardo Rivadavia writes;

“Seminal, prolific, and well nigh indestructible despite having weathered more musician turnover than Spinal Tap (at least 16 people have played in the band at one point or another) in their 15-year career, Malevolent Creation have, if nothing else, proved themselves to be as permanent as the genre itself. 2004's Warkult is something like their tenth LP of original material, and, although guitarist Phil Fasciana is now the sole remnant from 1991's debut The Ten Commandments, the band's corrosive brand of classic American death metal remains relatively intact. New school, meet the old school -- this is what death metal was originally built on: speedy, post-thrash riffing slung to lower depths of tuning and frequent time changes, and, certainly in Malevolent Creation's case, rough but generally intelligible cookie-monster vocals (if you really have to pay attention to the lyrics). Holding steadfast along these lines, Warkult (which, as its title would suggest, delves almost exclusively into subjects of warfare) gets going on a quickly building intro called "Dead March" before vomiting forth ferocious standouts like "Preemptive Strike," "Supremacy Through Annihilation," and "Shock and Awe." None of these will probably ever be considered absolute genre classics, but still deliver head-banging, fist-pumping, teeth-gnashing moments of death metal ecstasy, while bringing a welcome sense of continuity to Malevolent Creation's ongoing mission. [Most versions of Warkult also featured a bonus track called "Jack the Ripper" -- a cover of obscure Australian metal band Hobbs Angel of Death.]”

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

Click this link to listen to “Warkult” via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/warkult/1556383059

Click this link to listen to “Warkult” via Spotify: Warkult https://open.spotify.com/album/609nTJbpBAWMr0cXglojjU

Click this link to watch the official music video for “Stand Up”: https://youtu.be/l_lEqxF771Y

Click this link to follow the Malevolent Creation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/malevolentcreation/

Or this link: https://m.facebook.com/MalevolentCreationOfficialBand/

Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells

Malevolent Creation — Warkult

Overview:

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Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

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