Released: April 6, 1991
The Ten Commandments begins at a funeral. A spoken memorial passage hangs over the slow, tolling guitars of “Memorial Arrangements,” giving the record two and a half minutes of patience before “Premature Burial” tears it open. Released by R/C Records in 1991 and produced by Scott Burns, Malevolent Creation’s debut spends most of its 38 minutes at a sprint. The central question is simple: how does a band play at this pace without letting ten songs collapse into one long blur?
Phil Fasciana and Jeff Juszkiewicz answer through constant redirection. “Premature Burial” moves through tremolo picking, clipped power chords, and a mid-paced gallop without settling into one pattern. “Remnants of Withered Decay” pushes the band’s thrash roots closer to the surface, with tight downpicked figures broken by sudden accelerations. “Multiple Stab Wounds” races through a string of sharp changes, then drops into a slower groove that makes the next burst register. Each song has identifiable turns, even when the tempo barely gives them room.
Mark Simpson’s drumming keeps those shifts easy to follow. His blasts come in compact runs, while skank beats, double-kick passages, and busy fills mark the move from one guitar idea to the next. He can drive a riff straight ahead, then change its whole shape by moving the snare or opening the cymbals. “Thou Shall Kill!” gains much of its identity from that movement. Its galloping sections leave enough space for the title phrase to land as a crude, memorable command.
Jason Blachowicz usually locks the bass beneath the guitars, but the arrangements pull him forward at useful moments. “Sacrificial Annihilation” breaks open early for a quick bass flourish. “Injected Sufferage” begins with another exposed bass figure while the guitars stab chords around it. These brief spots reset the ear and provide the songs’ separate outlines. They also show how carefully the record is assembled beneath the frantic surface.
Bret Hoffmann helps define those outlines. His voice has the abrasion of a death-metal growl, but his phrasing stays close to an enraged thrash bark. The words remain unusually clear. He spits syllables in tight clusters, answers riff changes with shorter lines, and stretches key phrases just long enough to turn them into hooks. That clarity gives the lyrics a nasty physical presence: burial, decay, stabbing, sacrifice, and infection. The album’s title becomes a black joke with a precise structure—ten songs, including the command “Thou Shall Kill!”
Burns’ production keeps the details exposed. The guitars have a coarse midrange edge, the snare cuts cleanly, and the kick drums retain definition when Simpson takes off. Hoffmann sits high enough in the mix to be clear. Even the processed vocal interruption in “Impaled Existence” stands out because the surrounding sound is so dry and direct. The title track, the only song to pass five minutes, uses that extra room to revisit the album’s rapid attack, heavier rhythmic stops, and drawn-out vocal lines without losing its shape.
So how does The Ten Commandments avoid becoming a blur? It makes interruption part of the attack. The funeral opening, sudden grooves, Simpson’s rhythmic switches, Blachowicz’s exposed bass lines, and Hoffmann’s sharp diction keep drawing borders inside the rush. Malevolent Creation plays fast, and the record remains clear because the band redirects that pace before it can fade into background noise.
Written by Rob Joncas for DeadNoteMedia.
Artist information and music courtesy of the band.
© 2025 DeadNoteMedia. All rights reserved.
DeadNoteMedia 