I Declare War
Malevolence

October 2010
Released: 2010, n/a
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: Waspman

Seattle Washington’s I Declare War has been stomping around the metalcore/deathcore scene since 2005. They’ve been quite busy too as MALEVOLENCE represents their third full-length release since their inception. That’s some pretty quick work. Their two previous albums passed me by unnoticed, probably due to my impatience with / lack of interest in the long since stagnated metalcore scene but let’s hear what the band has to offer.

From minute one of the title track, it’s clear that I Declare War are, thankfully, very far removed from being just another metalcore band. In fact deathcore isn’t a very good classification either as MALEVOLENCE is pretty obviously a pure death metal album. Having never heard the band’s previous output, I can’t say whether they’ve been misclassified since the beginning, or if this album represents a musical step forward. Whatever the case, this album is a pretty bruising affair as the songs come fast and furious and are uniformly punishing. The performances are spot on, and as exact as you’d expect for death metal, and thankfully do not sound overly processed.

Unfortunately, as seems to be the case for the albums I reviewed this month, nothing really stands out. The album is a vortex of brutal riffs and growls and it all just bleeds together, essentially making it one long song. It’s too bad that the song writing isn’t up to par because the band certainly has the aggression and atmosphere mastered. After all, this is still a young band despite this being their third album so they have plenty of room to grow. Hopefully the next time around it will all come together.