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Track Listing: United Hate Conflict Finalized Slaughterhouse Compulsive Face Breaker Lead Spitter Target Rich Environment Antagonized Born Again Hard Corruptor Invidious Dominion

"Invidious Dominion" is the 11th studio album from New York death-metal heavyweights Malevolent Creation.

It begins with an interesting 30-second intro that fades into the first track on the album, "United Hate".

"United Hate" starts with no frills, in a high-octane in your face manner. This track is incredibly fast, and equally heavy. Everything is in a chaotic, yet organized manner. The guitar work on this track seems to be a hodge-podge of influences culled from various heavy metal subgenres. The bass on this track is almost inaudible, which is a bit of a disappointment, but the drums compensate for the lack of bass; incredibly fast, organized, and chaotic. The vocals are intense, but sound a bit strained. This track follows the same formula throughout the entirety of the song, which isn't a bad thing. Everything fits together perfectly.

The next track "Conflict Finalized", doesn't seem to break the traditional death metal formula too much, there's a lot of hammering and pulling going on, and a lot of crushing riffs to keep even the most discriminating death metal fan happy. Again, everything is loud, fast, and heavy as hell. The drums really stick out the most on this track, with an intense use of a double-pedal; Gus Rios has incredible control over his instrument. The guitars seem a bit generic; standard tremolo picking, hammer-ons, and pull-offs, but they make it work pretty well.

The track "Target Rich Environment" is really the best track on the album. I sense a bit of black metal influence on this track, as well as a heavy Cannibal Corpse influence, musically speaking. This song breaks the formula a bit, and features a lot of insane guitar-work that really breaks the mold of the entire album. Everything on this track is incredibly performed, and is performed with incredible precision. Once again, the bass is pretty much non-existent, and the vocals never really change. But, overall, it's a great track.

This album is both great and a bit disappointing. While you can tell the musicians pour their souls into the music, everything seems incredibly bland and generic, and never really seems to break the chains of standard death metal. The vocals sound the same on every song, and the bass is buried underneath the incredible amount of distortion put out by the guitars. For the more seasoned Malevolent Creation fan, this album is a masterpiece; for the casual listener, not so much. There are many redeeming qualities on this album, however. The solos on the title track; absolutely superb. The amount of abuse Brett Hoffman can put his vocal cords through; incredible; and the drums are really the crowning jewel of the album. Most of the guitar riffs are great, but the fills in the songs could use some work. All in all, this album is pretty good, and deserves a listen from all the fans worldwide. I give this album a 6.5 out of 10 rating and 2 horns up.

For more info, check out the band's official myspace.