Malice Divine Coats Empowerment In Black Metal Textures In Everlasting Ascendancy
Everlasting Ascendancy is the second album from Canada’s one-man black metal project Malice Divine, following up their much acclaimed self-titled debut in 2021. Able to work freely without creative impediments, Ric Galvez has poured his passion into this album, and it shows. A lot of the songs have complex song structures, but there is also a lot of catchiness and melody to make this album a very memorable listen, nonetheless. He shares his excitement for the release:
“I am incredibly excited to finally have the sophomore Malice Divine album “Everlasting Ascendancy” released into the world! With this album, I am aiming to have the listener feel empowered and inspired to go after what they want in life and not settle for less. The message of Malice Divine is one of empowerment and that message can be found throughout all 8 tracks on “Everlasting Ascendancy” in some shape or form. I poured my heart and soul into this album, which will be apparent both musically and lyrically. Despite the music obviously being extreme metal, that doesn’t stop me from writing about very personal matters. All in all, I am incredibly proud of this album, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it!”
Everlasting Ascendancy is a dynamic experience while also being an overall more aggressive album than the first one, especially in the vocal delivery. There are still plenty of melody and classical guitar sections, which is a major part of Malice Divine’s sound. The solos on this album are even more virtuosic than before as well.
All songs on Everlasting Ascendancy were written by Galvez, who enlisted session drummer Dylan Gowan (Vesperia, Birds of Bellwoods, Co-Host We’re Talkin Drums, Overkill Reviewer Banger TV) to hammer them out. The album was produced and mixed by Tyler Williams (Sludgehammer, Monolithic Productions) and mastered by Jamie King (Between the Buried and Me, The Contortionist, Scale The Summit). The album artwork was done by Eka Saputra (Psychopart).
Listen to Everlasting Ascendancy below and learn more about Malice Divine via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hey guys! I’m Ric, and I am the sole songwriter behind the Melodic Black/Death Metal project Malice Divine. I write all of the music and lyrics, as well as perform all of the vocals, guitars, and bass in the studio. I officially founded Malice Divine back in the summer of 2019, right after I was fired from the band I was in at the time. Since then, I have recorded and released two full-length albums independently.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
My most recent release, Everlasting Ascendancy was released in late January 2023. Once again, I hired Tyler Williams (Monolithic Productions) to handle the engineering and mixing of the album, as well as session drummer Dylan Gowan to perform drums. Jamie King of Jamie King Audio handled the mastering this time around. Six of the eight songs were written between late 2020 and mid-2021. The other two songs are quite a bit older (except for their lyrics and guitar solos, which I wrote in 2021). Those two older songs are “Silenced Judgement” and “Illusions Of Fragmentation.” I wrote those songs (minus the lyrics and guitar solos) in 2014 and 2015, respectively. They are even older than the majority of the material on the self-titled debut album from 2021. It’s really amazing to finally have those songs out in the world after such a long period of time of waiting in dormancy.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
I pull inspiration from my favourite bands and musicians (Dissection, Watain, Necrophobic, Bathory, Immortal, Behemoth, Morbid Angel, Death, Revocation, etc.!) as well as my personal life experiences and my own personal interests outside of music. Those interests include spirituality, the paranormal, and psychology, just to name a few. Songwriting is a very powerful form of self-expression for me.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
Unfortunately, I do not have any upcoming shows lined up yet. I do plan on changing that as soon as possible, though. I just need to get a live line-up together first. I am dying to perform these songs live soon!
What’s your goal for 2023?
I have a lot of goals for 2023! First of all, I plan on making as much progress in writing the 3rd Malice Divine album as possible. Second of all, I plan on getting together a solid live line-up together so I can start performing live with Malice Divine. Like I said in my answer to the previous question, I am dying to perform these songs live soon! I also plan on learning more about music production so I can eventually record my own albums myself in the future. I also have plenty of personal, non-Malice Divine-related goals as well.