MARTYRVORE, meaning "Devourer of Martyrs", is an American Black/Death Metal band from Kingston, New Hampshire who have been active since 2002 and has since 2004 released 3 demos, 2 compilation albums, 2 split albums with first COLD NORTHERN VENGEANCE and second with WITCH TOMB, one full-length album in 2014 and the same year this EP entitled "Malevolent Desolation". A rather impressive amount of releases for a small-time Black Metal band under a 10-year period, but sadly that's also the most - if not only - impressive thing about MARTYRVORE.

While their debut full-length "Obliteration" was a somewhat (not massive, but noticeable) improvement to their previous works in terms recording quality, "Malevolent Desolation" has none of that and sounds just as horrible, uninspired and underwhelming as the demos that preceded it. Actually, I think the demos sound arguably better than this, but that may also be a result of those being a lot more Death Metal-inspired than this EP, which is distinctly more Black Metal-inspired - and naturally because of that it has to sound horrible, because that's apparently the only way to make Black Metal.

It's possible that this EP could've been saved by a much better recording quality, but then there was never a moment throughout the EP's course that I thought, "Hey, this wasn't actually that bad!". Ok, that's not entirely true, because the title track wasn't actually that bad - because it wasn't a song; it's an atmospheric outro track and it's definitively the EP's one and only high point. If you've ever listened to a boring Black Metal band before, that's what you have to expect from MARTYRVORE's, interestingly enough, first EP. I can't recommend this to anyone; maybe to a trv kvlt Black Metal fanatic, but to anyone else this is just a waste of time. If you really want to give MARTYRVORE a chance, listen to their debut album. I personally wouldn't call that good, but at least you won't fall asleep or be prompted to attempt suicide out of "Malevolent Desolation"'s sheer noise-filled generic boredom.<