Sickest shit I've heard thus far. The name's Malignancy, boys and girls. The band's trade is brutal grind death metal. And I mean brutal! And fucking sick, too, if you didn't get it at the first time. Well, what you expect from a band with current and ex-members of Mortician?

Lovely cover art where a shark has mauled a woman gets sonical equivalent at the beginning of this mini-CD. 40 second sound clip will drive normal people away. But that's good for them, because Malignancy's death metal would probably cause them a heart attack. Some heaviest shit around for sure. The band doesn't like to play one part for a very long time and therefore the music is in constant mutation. The band changes from ultra-fast blasting to gut-wrenching slowness in a nanosecond, and back. Drummer Roger J. Beaujard (Mortician) doesn't play very slow ever, but keeps the pace during slower guitar parts, too. The song structures are nothing normal. This took fucking many spins before I remembered a riff or two. The title track is hardest one to get, thanks to its "out there"-ness. The following songs are much more catchier, but still hell of a sick pieces of spasmic death metal mayhem. But believe me, the band's tight as a virgin and this departs Malignancy from bands who can't compose good music. Vibe is very North American of course. Think of a real brutal mixture of Mortician, Brutal Truth, Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation and you are near. Oops, didn't remember to tell you must multiply the brutality and sickness ten times. This verse from 'Atmosphere of Decay' sums up Malignancy quite well: "Mutation, genetic structures altered. Seepage of cancerous spores, pustule discharge from pores. Tumorous secretions, tissue inflammation. Spreading neoplasm, causing convulsive spasms."

Vocals... Is that a human making those sounds?! The beginning is the worst: gurgle sounds are actually fucking disgusting. Great! Otherwise there's growling and grunting plus some lacerating screams. Very varying bunch of familiar of not so familiar styles. Lyrics are very good indeed. Detailed stories of getting eaten by a shark, incest-caused mutations in girls' pussies (teeth grown into vaginas and they bite dicks and cause men loose their tools, hehehee), going to indentify possible family members at a morgue, and some sicknesses. It is a good thing, that the lyrics are printed, because I couldn't but except one verse of vocals! The production job is practically perfect: snappy snare drum sound, grinding heavy guitar and massive bass in traditional style. Everything is well balanced in the mix so it is very clear. Live bonus track has a bad sound, but sarcastic discussion with audience is funny hearing.

After this short yet very effective laxative you won't have "foul smelling stool blocks the bowel" (a line from 'Cystic Fibrosis') problem anymore! Be sure you can give this time, because this is truly wicked. I have listened to this quite intensely for a week now, and I still find new shit every time, so score might rise. And I believe it does. At first this sounded only ultra-brutal, but now this sounds ultra-brutal music.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
10/19/2004 22:06