Rating: 8.0

Country: USA

Release Date: 2005

Record Label: -

Track list:
1. Indigenous Pathogen [mp3]
2. Embryological Teratomas
3. Genital Hemangioma

Malignancy - Promo 2005

Danny Nelson - Vocals
Ron Kachnic - Guitars
Lance Snyder - Bass
Mike Heller - Drums

I remember when Gorguts' 'Obscura' came out and a whole fuck load of people shunned it as a piece of crap, five years later people have started to realize the genius and started to jump on the band wagon by trying to emulate the insanity. Unlike Gorguts or Immolation, the progress wasn't drastic, it was a slow evolution from each releases that keep challenging the listener and the fans. Like 'Obscura' either hate it or love it.

A lot of people have complained that Malignancy isn't pit friendly, too fucking bad. Malignancy is a band that actually requires one to listen and have the full attention, if you want too dumb out there's Devourment. Its cerebral, it takes more than one listen to catch the magnificent arrangements. Though one cannot deny the amount of artificial harmonics are packed in this recording, if you eat cereals and know that one saying from Kellogg's Raisin Bran “Now with two full scoops?” multiply that with 75% more pinch harmonics compared to their previous works. You gotta give it to Ronny the guitarist, this guy is the master of the harmonics and he has so much control over it. I've seen these guys rehearse and whenever Ronny plays, his eyes are 97% close and looks like one of those kung-fu masters that blindfolds himself yet I'm there soiling myself from what I'm hearing.

A lot of people confuse what “guttural” vocals are; we usually associate them as this gurgling style (ie Matti Way, Chris Barnes, etc). But the prefix “gut” means it comes from the tummy. The “guttural” vocals that we usually associate usually come from the throat. Danny Nelson is the TRUE guttural vocalist. He does not cup the mic, there's power in his vocals, and its all from his GUT. Also this is the first recording of their new drummer Mike Heller. He had a huge shoes to fill, but when you listen to the promo, you can hear that he's fit in quite nicely.

Of course this is only a promo, which is a teaser for things to come. The three songs are less than 2 minutes each. Though I miss the days where they have climactic parts, the band have defined and sharpened their style into “short and sweet and straight to the point.” And you thought that the cerebral part ends in the music? Whoever releases their upcoming full-length should have a medical dictionary with the cd for idiots like me to understand what the fuck “Teratomas” and “Hemangioma” are, cuz I feel like a moron in the special ed class.

Compared to their last release 'Cross Species Transmutation', the production breathes of life and doesn't sound like there was a black hole sucking out the guitars. This time the guitars are larger like a wall of sound, heavy with the distorted bass backing it up. Though the drums are a little too raw, but besides that, this is a fucking heavy and crushing production. Aces to Lance for the production work in such little time!

Albums like 'Here In After', 'Obscura', 'Using Sickness as Hero', and 'Nesphite' took more than 5 listens to discover their greatness (took me 3 years to appreciate 'Here In After' hahaha). Give Malignancy a whirl and discover what you've been missing out.

November 9th, 2005