Band: Malefice
Title: Dawn Of Reprisal
Label: Metal Blade Records
Distribution: Rough Trade
Release date: March 2009
Review: CD

The formation Malefice was formed in 2003 and did release two official recordings before, Relentless, a mini-album, in 2006, and the first full length in 2007, which was called Entities. Recently, Malefice (Dale Butler-v, Ben Symons-g, Craig Thomas-d, Alex Vuskans-g, and Thomas Hynes-b) signed to Metal Blade, which seems to be a good choice. Malefice are a strong band, but both former recordings were released through small labels (resp. Hangmans Joke and Anticulture), which sort of obliged the band to stay ‘local’.
Dawn Of Reprisal, the second studio full length, lasts for forty two minutes. The album brings a form of melodic and technical Death Metal, and both melody and technical craftsmanship are well-balanced and perfectly performed. The more melodious parts are rather catchy sometimes, and this cleaner approach sometimes adds a subtle emotional touch. The tracks mostly vary from very slow to up-tempo, with several faster, grooving parts, and include some elements from Thrash and Doom Metal. But even the slowest parts exhale a pounding energy, which ‘drives’ this album to an interesting level.
It is remarkable how the U.K. keeps on giving birth to strong Death Metal bands; in this case, it isn’t about the most world-shocking or original album, but thee intelligence behind it needs to be praised. Praise!

83/100

Ivan Tibos.