Vitals:
Name: Malefice
Album: Dawn of Reprisal
Year: 2009
Label: Metal Blade
Genre: Metalcore/Thrash/Progressive Metal
The Skinny
Hardcore tidbits. Ferocious Metal riffage. Occasional breakdown. Melodic vocal endeavors that seem to go against the grain of the album. Thrash elements. Small splash of Progressive-genre guitar work. Boring vocals. Tiresome song structures.
Highlights
“The Midas Effect“ blasts off with a nice harmonized triplet guitar/bass lick that collapses into a grinding, galloping, and chugging “Gojira”-ish sound with a trem dive at the end. Throaty, consistent vocals. Really good energy level.
“End of Days” is an interesting song on this album. It has melodic elements and even clean vocals. True depth of creativity that I hope this band exploits on future releases.
“As I Bleed” has a well-executed guitar solo.
“When Embers Ignite” is groove central. Very nice.
“Sickened” is brutal with a pretty badass staggered stutter riff throughout. If this band can pull this off cleanly in their live show, Kudos!
Opinion
This album must be bipolar. Why? Because the beginning songs are brutal. The middle songs are melodic and expressive. The last few songs are heavy with groove. I can’t really grasp what this album is trying to express or what Malefice actually brings to the table without being completely confused. Having an identity crisis throughout your first major label release is interesting and really frustrates someone like me. I can only wait and see what these guys create next time. Overall I’d say this album is fairly cookie cutter among the band’s influences. There are other more expressive artists in this genre who can pull off a better package. What do you guys think?
Recommend it? Maybe.
Replay Value: Medium-Low.