Track By Tracks: Malevolent - Malevolent (2023)

1. Creations:

It was special from the very beginning since it was intended to be the main single. Musically Niko drove the music from the orchestral soundtrack to the symphonic metal in a very organic way. Celica was influenced by Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) in the verses and the combination of both powerful and ethereal vocals in the chorus. Also, Mark’s (Jansen from Epica) screaming and Niko’s deep grunts keep the dark atmosphere of the apocalypse in the story, representing the evil lord who controls everything everywhere.

2. Gaze:

When the human sinks in despair, religion is always there. Characters need to “believe” in something and keep moving forward to survive. The choirs and the tenor male voice were a nice way to bring that “religious environment”. In our opinion, this track shows the oppressive atmosphere we actually live in nowadays, so the doom/black metal touches in the composition definitely helps to bring up the feeling. Also is more powerful vocally speaking.

3. Light:

Celica fell in love with this song at first listening. Its structure reminded her of the trailer/epic music she is used to working with. To write the lyrics, she thought in something like Tolkien’s Mithlond, like a promised land/heaven the characters intended to reach to finally leave all the destruction and chaos behind. she could also relate this idea to Viking’s idea of Valhalla. It was definitely the hardest one to sing, because it reaches the pitch three times, scaling both melodies and harmonies. Celica reached my own chest voice record with this one (I think it was an E5). She remembers going into the studio after telling Niko and producer Joost (Vandenbroek - Epica, Powerwolf,...): “I’ll try it only twice. If I can’t reach it, I’ll do it in the head voice”. When she came out, they both watched with open wide eyes and Joost said: “Ok, that definitely will work”. Honestly, she was as stunned as they were (lol).

4. Ways:

If “Creations” is like an introduction to the apocalypse, “Ways” is the introduction of the characters in the story, because it speaks about how they resist and fight the evil powers and the bad situation which ruined the world. Celica loves Jan’s (Verschueren - lead guitar) guitar solo in this one, and also how the music gets stronger as it approaches the end. Celica had a lot of fun with this one, vocally speaking. She played again with the head voice and the chest voice to evoke that ethereal/storytelling feeling.

5. The Awakening (bonus track):

For us it was our “laboratory” track because in this one Niko used to make some experiments; from the production to the video. It wasn’t intended to be part of the EP, although Niko thought of including it as a “bonus track” just for the CD and digital version of the album (it won’t be on the vinyl). Fun fact: We baptized it as “the ATERROLE” song because in Spanish “rr” has a very strong sound and that really amused Niko when he listened to it! To understand this part you definitely have to listen to the song ;-)