Rating: 7.7

Country: Japan

Release Date: 2006

Record Label: Unmatched Brutality Records

Track list:
1. Anesthetized Vision
2. Revival 02:17
3. Cruel Recollection
4. Desperate Death
5. Frightened at the Crime
6. Revenge to Capitalism
7. Retaliate Against the Pain
8. Reflected Loss
9. untitled

Band Website: Infected Malignity

Infected Malignity - The Malignity Born From Despair

Yuuto Sugano - Drums
Takuma Sugano - Guitar
Katsuyuki Oota - Vocals and Bass

With a name like that, you'd feel like infecting these young guys with some malignity of your own, but trust me, there's no need for that or to despair. Earlier even I felt like that but after forcing myself to listen to them by tying myself to my victimised chair, my poop redolent keyboard and my neighbour's annoying little Pomeranian dog that I kidnapped, realisation dawned upon me. It made two things very clear: 1) A Pomeranian dog never stops barking no matter how hard you try to strangle it and 2) Infected Malignity doesn't suck.

For some like DC's own Pooptastik, that's only because they're from Japan (refer to his Viscera Infest review). For him it is inconceivable for any band from Japan to suck. Japanese bands just weren't meant to suck. I punched him in his prodigious belly for his lame pretence, wobbled due to the impact and while still swaying told him it's because Infected Malignity's music is actually good. Like their progenitors Vomit Remnants, Infected Malignity is predominantly influenced by the American brutal death metal scene, and like them, eclipses a whole bundle of them brutal wannabes - who were still trying to get their br00tal image right when these guys came from nowhere (Japan, actually) and flew past them, not before giving them a taste of their own music through their droppings.

Possessing amazing powers of approximation like that of an Indian vegetable vendor, Infected Malignity stuff only the right amounts of chugs, slams, breakdowns, blasting, etc. in your brutal bag and you go home happy and satisfied (until you meet your old school death metal wife). In that respect Infected Malignity are similar to Lust of Decay - you can't regard them as blatant clones nor can you categorise them under any particular sub-sub-genre of death metal such as hyper blasting death metal, technical brutal dm, groovy brutal/NYDM, etc. So while you're busy headbanging like an epileptic patient, the music might just stop and slam you facedown before you even get the chance to say "what the...?". That happens quite often here, your body will get used to it.

Their influences are numerous, coalesced so well that they might be indiscernible to anyone but to those belonging to the br00tal ilk. Not to me though, for after resolutely contorting my already grotesque features at their music, I came to the conclusion that Infected Malignancy's ruthless aggression and speed is not unlike Internal Suffering and Brodequin, that their riffing style and technical flings could be attributed to bands like Gorgasm, Cenotaph, Decrepit Birth and Damnable (in varying proportions), and the all-important chugs and slams are most likely derived from Devourment, Dehumanized, Internal Bleeding and Dying Fetus (or you could say Vomit Remnants).

Like me and probably Pooptastik, you too will be relieved if not delighted to hear their production, which simply put, is fucking powerful. You've got no weak matchstick drumming, but loud, full and in-your-face (perhaps too much so) drumming, and the guitars don't sound like they're coming from your neighbour's house either. Where the vocals are concerned, Infected Malignancy doesn't have characterless ree-ing, but big-angry--bear-discovering-Goldilocks-in-his-bed like roars. So that's that.

It's no secret that Infected Malignity's music is unoriginal, but in addition to that it's also a tad dull and dry. But by having miraculously struck a fine balance in their songs, it makes up for a far more pleasurable listen than other clueless bands of this genre. Considering that this is only their debut, you can look forward to wonderful things by this Japanese band in future. In short, ‘The Malignity Born From Despair' is a good album worthy of your money, especially if you're into this kind of music.

May 30th, 2006