Review by Elijah on February 26, 2020.

Gonna say this right off the bat, this album is easily one of the bands' best work ever. It's kinda crazy how they put out albums like The Ten Commandments, Retribution, and Stillborn and not too long after those releases they have this. They pretty much revamped their general sound if I do say so myself. This album is the blueprint for every other single album put out after this one. New sound. Their first three records are straight OSDM, but In Cold Blood is an outstanding mix of old school and new school, as it was released in 1997. This is THE Malevolent Creation album.

This album is so great because of how every instrument sound. The drums are my favorite thing about this, the snare has a thick yet loose punchy sound, and with every blast beat and snare hit, it matches the sound of the guitars perfectly. The kick drum sounds heavy, thick, and bouncy, as well as a "punchy" sound like the snare too; and it's perfect. The drums are very solid in every way. The guitars have that sound that perfectly defines death metal released between 1995-2002. I don't know anything about guitars, but all I got to say is that they sound absolutely flawless here. Along with the drums, they sound vibrant, upbeat, and just great and flawless, straight up.

I can't exactly choose a favorite track, but it's probably 'Nocturnal Overlord'. The song opens up with a few strums and blast beats, then fast, brutal riffing with skank beats followed by blast beats at the end of every measure. Pretty good way to start off the album, they immediately show the listener the guitars close and clean, and the skill of the drummer too. As of the previous album Eternal, Jason Blachowicz takes role of vocal work on this album too. His vocals on Eternal are great, but on this album his they are more clean, expansive, and straight up. On Eternal it was near the same, but it had more of a dry-ish sound, compared to In Cold Blood where they're heavier, more guttural, and ruthless. I definitely prefer him over Brett Hoffman, honestly. He just has more backbone and solidity. Dave Culross isn't behind drums for this album; sure, does sound like him though. Derek Roddy is in the band for this one, and he sure as hell did an amazing job. Like I said previously, the drumming is outstanding on this record. Clean blast beats and fills over and over, couldn't be better. In the future he played in bands such as Hate Eternal on their albums "King of All Kings" and "I, Monarch", and with Nile on "Black Seeds of Vengeance"; so makes great sense that they chose him, he was relentless on this album and he soon brought it to other bands in the future. Seriously some top-notch drumming. Every musical aspect of this album is absolutely flawless, and nothing is of a bore.

Most people may prefer the first three albums; the classics, over other things the band released, but nope; not me. I'm not one of them. I prefer this era along with any other album after Stillborn countless times more. It's just more entertaining, more brutality, expansive, and creative. There's no bore, no song skipping, etc. no nothing of the sort. Like I said at the beginning, this is THE Malevolent Creation album. If you haven't heard this album do yourself a favor, get off your ass and listen to it, along with all the other post-Stillborn ones as well.

Rating: 10 out of 10