Review by Jack on July 24, 2002.

Death vocals: understood by few, persecuted by many. Thought to be incapable of displaying any real emotion and relegated to a more monotonous form of singing. Malevolence break the mold. “Martyrialized”; and the vocals of front man Carlos Cariano are truly shattering the trends that was once the normal day to day activities of death metal bands. On tracks such as ‘Insubordination’ and ‘Martyrialized’, Carlos is able to convey the emotion and meaning, which few of his death counterparts have the competence to achieve.

Thus we are presented with one of many strengths from the second album of Malevolence. Death metal is probably an unfair tag for “Martyrialized”; to write off Malevolence as simply another death metal name would be doing them a GIGANTIC disservice, as they are clearly so much more and more to the point capable of doing so much more for metal. Even though the vocals of the aforementioned Carlos are certainly of death origins; the guitar breaks, keyboards and competent rhythm section have more fire in their belly than the most monstrous dragon ever imagined in fantastical thoughts and dreams. Intelligent and atmospheric songwriting all pave the way for an albeit short, but extremely tantalizing album from Malevolence.

What I mean by intelligent songwriting is that Malevolence are constantly challenging on every track on the 30 minutes they have to paint their picture. Instead of walking down predictable avenues, Malevolence take a stroll up innovation road cutting and weaving through clever and crafty changes to each and every song.

Bottom Line: If you become bored with the stagnating melodic death scene and pure death metal acts of today, do not hesitate to pick up “Martyrialized” from Malevolence. Hell, even if you love both melodic death, death metal... any sort of metal, you owe it to your ears to pick this sonic masterpiece up.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 7
Originality: 9
Overall: 9

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Krys on July 22, 2001.

I haven’t heard the Malevolence debut “Dominium”, but after the feast of sounds on “Martyrialized” I can assure you that it will be my first priority to repair the unforgivable mistake of not having it yet in my CD collection. By creating one of the most diverse and multidimensional albums of the extreme metal scene, these Portuguese exceeded my boldest expectations.

Generally speaking I could say Malevolence plays death metal but that’s not a totally adequate statement. Sure, the main concept of the album is based on the death metal influences but if you took away Carlos’ brutal growls and replaced them with clean vocals you would have no idea how to categorize this band.

What you’ll get here is a journey from heavy and rhythmical riffs to melodic grooves. You’ll get fury, hate in one song to be followed by doom and melancholy in the next one. The mixture of emotions represented by a flawless blend of metal genres like doom, black, gothic and thrash shows the deep personality of Malevolence’s members. Nine compositions from which none reminds you of anything else on this collection of art would satisfy the most demanding fans and easily land a top spot on your shelf as one of the most interesting and eye-brow raising bands going into the new century.

Because of the above-mentioned reasons, it’s really hard to pick a favorite track, each one of them is different and unique in its own way. As always, a great job by Fredrik Nordstrom (At The Gates, Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquility, Hammerfall...) only increases already high value of this masterpiece. (Although with the bigger budget this album could sound a little better.)

Bottom Line: Amazing musicianship, great composing talents, outstanding songwriting and (almost) top-notch production... If all that is not enough to purchase this CD, I suggest an appointment with very good doctor cause I think you are suffering the worst case of cranial hemorrhaging.

Rating: 9 out of 10