Guitarist Phil Fasciana of long-running Florida death metallers MALEVOLENT CREATION was reportedly involved in a bizarre shootout at a convenient store in his hometown of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. According Fasciana, he pulled into a small store at around 3:00 p.m. Friday afternoon (July 3) to get something to drink and walked right into a robbery in progress. "I went in this little store on my way home to get a chocolate milk, of all things, and little did I know, I was walking into a life-or-death situation," he says. "When I walked into the store, I did not notice anyone else in the store until someone started screaming at me and pointed a gun at me. I nearly shit myself, because the dude looked wacked out of his mind and fired four shots directly at me and I went down to the ground because I thought I was surely shot. After about 30 seconds, I realized I was not hit at all and the shooter thought I was dead or injured and started attacking the store worker when I snuck up behind the burglar and talked [to] him and took the gun out of his hands and told him to get out of the store. He then reached in his sock and pulled another gun out and pointed it at me and that's when I fired two shots into his head, killing him instantly!

"Never in my life has anything so twisted happened to me before and I would like to forget it ever happened, but I had no other choice. Lucky for me, the stupid crackhead burglar had the worst aim in the world and missed me with all four shots from about 10 feet away! Needless to say, all charges have been dropped and the store owner has offered me a lifetime of chocolate milk! Ha Ha!

"I have been in some scary situations before, but having someone shoot out you from that close and miss is a fucking miracle and I have no remorse for killing the assailant who tried to take my life and the store owner's.

"I gotta move out of this town!! I have enough problems as it is!!

"I am very lucky and could easily be dead at this moment, but I'm not and I'm gearing up for our Mexican, South American and European headlining tour which start at the end of July.

"I would like to put this behind me and not talk about it anymore. It was the most fucked up thing I have ever been involved with, besides my ex-girlfriend!!"

UPDATE: According to Phil, the entire incident was captured on the store's surveillance video, but the police has yet to release the tape.

BLABBERMOUTH.NET could not independently confirm the veracity of any of Fasciana's claims at press time. Furthermore, BLABBERMOUTH.NET could not find any news reports that corroborate the guitarist's account.

Crash Music released a limited-edition digipack from MALEVOLENT CREATION entitled "Essentials" in February. The package features 38 tracks on three discs, with over 110 minutes of "pure brutality."

MALEVOLENT CREATION's "Lost Commandments" DVD was released in August 2008 in Europe via Massacre Records. The one-hour, 45-minute disc features two complete shows from the band — Party.San Open Air festival (August 9-11, 2007 in Bad Berka, Germany) and Paris, France (2004).

MALEVOLENT CREATION's latest album, "Doomsday X", was released in the U.S. in July 2007 via Nuclear Blast Records and in Europe in August 2007 via Massacre Records. The CD was recorded and engineered at Mercury Recording Studios in Pompano Beach, Florida by longtime friend and producer (and sometimes session member) Gus Rios, and is said to be the most diverse MALEVOLENT CREATION album recorded to date and "without a doubt their fastest!!" Mick Thomson, guitarist for SLIPKNOT, contributed a "ripping" guitar solo to the song "Deliver My Enemy".

MALEVOLENT CREATION performing live in Czech Republic - August 2007: