‘Entities’ is the debut album from Malefice; a metalcore band from Reading, UK. The band formed in 2003 and this album was released through Anticulture Records in summer 2007. The album consists of twelve tracks of hard hitting metalcore music, the band here puts across an instrumentally melodic opening before firing you into the true heart of the music and it is here that the sound really begins to explode.
‘Empirical Proof, Pt. 1’ is the opening track here; it’s a minute and a half of pleasantly put across instrumental sound which is then followed by ‘Risen Through the Ashes’. As the opening track plays you can’t really tell what will follow, there’s some underlying power within the sound but you’re certainly not prepared for what comes next. ‘Risen Through the Ashes’ is a powerful four minute track of brutal metalcore, there’s a hint of death metal in the sound here also and the vocals are growled out by the bands lead vocalist Dale Butler. Dale Butler grunts and growls his way through this album, the music is instrumentally powerful and the vocal performance also has much to offer. The tracks are all incredibly similar; the music is however interesting to listen to and the bands sound always possesses plenty of power and a large abundance of energy.
‘Empirical Proof, Pt. 2’ is the eighth track on this album, it’s a continuation of the opening track and once more here the sound is pleasantly put across by the band. It’s another instrumental offering of music and these instrumental pieces provided by the band really do break this album up nicely. Most of the tracks featured here sound very much the same, it’s nice that the band has included a little in the way of variation with this album and slipped in a couple of tracks that are a little more light and approachable than the others. As you’re listening to this ‘Entities’ album it’s these two tracks that stand out; as interesting as the bands brutal metalcore music is to listen to, it’s certainly nice to hear the band try out something a little bit different from time to time here.
Closing track ‘Bringer of War’ provides the album with a fantastic final moment, it’s my personal favourite from this ‘Entities’ release and always the music has much to offer here. The track possesses elements of grindcore, metalcore, and death metal also; it’s a fine mix of sound and with this track the album ends on a definite high. The guitar work is powerful, the drumbeats also are highly heavy, and vocally here the band jumps between grunts, growls, and the odd occasional spoken vocal line also. This final track is four minutes long and there are not a finer four minutes present on the album than this.
For those that love their metalcore then the music of Malefice should most definitely be of great appeal. The tracks are all quite similar, very similar in fact; the tracks are extremely finely constructed however and both instrumentally and vocally also the music created by the band here is always highly impressive. The two instrumental tracks break up the album nicely, the music is very well put across by Malefice but most definitely creativity is not one of the bands finest points. The tracks are all extremely stylistically similar; it’s a decent album of metalcore however from a band that implements strongly elements of death metal into its sound. Malefice’s ‘Entities’ album is well worth a listen, it’s not exactly the best album ever to have been released in the genre of metalcore but a noteworthy effort nonetheless.
Label: Anticulture Records
Release Date: August 20th 2007
Rating:
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
