Until Extinction: Malice

Hailing from the St. Louis area in the Mid West are the Progressive Death Metal band, Until Extinction, with their sophomore release, Malice. This 11 track release is best described as a cross between the styles of bands like Dark Tranquility and Nightwish with a little Lacuna Coil thrown in for good measure.

Until Extinction incorporates male vocals for the growling & screaming and female vocals are for the pristine vocals and a good example of this pairing is evident right from the beginning in lead off track, "The Cremation of the Divine Monstrosity". This song is filled with Death Metal blast beats that leads into some Dimmu Borgir territory before slamming into the clean female vocals that are also coupled with melodic undertones. There is a lot going on in these songs, good or bad.

A couple of unforeseen twists reside in the song "300" which is a Folk laden song that conjures visions of Medieval times and green, rolling hills and their cover version of the 70's Bill Wither's classic, "No Sunshine" that gets the full on Death treatment after they fool you with the classic sounding intro. I for one wish that they had left this classic song alone, as a Metal version just does nothing but ruin it.

Overall Until Extinction do show some depth within their 2nd CD release and are not a one trick Death Metal pony. The soft and fragile vocals by Angelic Hobart that are accompanied by piano and harmonica in the delicate tune, "Herald the Dawn" shows a complete other side to what this band can do, while the CD closer, "On Cursed Wings" is a 10 minute plus opus that connects a lot of Metal dots across the different spectrums of what the band does. Until Extinction are not exactly blazing uncharted territory with Malice, but within the realm that their music is in, it is a decent release for fans that enjoy the somewhat melodic side of Death Metal.

Track Listing
1. Cremation of the Divine Monstrosity
2. Creation of the Divine Hypocrisy
3. Malice
4. 300
5. Tempus Fugit
6. Herald the Dawn
7. Where the Wild Things Aren't
8. No Sunshine
9. White Lies In Red
10. Genesis of a Terminus
11. On Cursed Wings

Added: September 18th 2014
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 1858
Language: english

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