Path to Repression

What does one do when they’ve discovered a hidden treasure? Do they hide it, never telling anyone? Do they share it with friends, family, or the world? Do they throw it back? In the case of Malignant Inception the first and last would simply be a shame.

Every so often does a band, brimming with talent, not just in musicianship but also in song writing, appear to remind us that diversity isn’t a bad thing. We all know these bands, typically the odd balls, sometimes they’re not even that “Metal”, but they always seem to stick with us. They have this unnatural way of being one of the first things we anticipate in the way of new shows, or releases, they’re not necessarily even our favorite bands.

In Malignant Inception we find a band that truly fits the term “Extreme Metal” a term that is misused by trendy hardcore kids trying to play Swedish Death Metal. This band is extreme in the way that they aren’t afraid to go from intricate to brutal from beautiful to ugly all while in the same song. A band that embraces Death & Black Metal while adding Progressive elements along with accomplished song writing to amazing effect.

This band whose first record is a great example of early Suffocation, has with their second release set a standard in what “Extreme” Metal truly is. Filled with soaring keyboards, crunchy guitars& hurricane force blasts; with solos from each of the aforementioned to melt anyone’s face from the plain of existence. The vocals range from Corpsegrinder lows to Filth highs, all the while hitting everything in between with surgical precision and never once getting repetitive.

The arrangements are long and engaging, they challenge the listener to comprehend the story of a man on the edge. This in and of itself is gutsy for an underground band with out a label to undertake. The concept album is very hard for even the most established acts to pull off let alone an esoteric gem. The production is solid, and truly must be heard to fully appreciate.

In conclusion, anyone who wants a brilliant slice of “Extreme” Metal and who wants to be on the ground floor of a band that will surely soar to the top simply must acquire this release.

This album contains 8 themes enumerated in Romans, the first one is an Intro called “Induced Placement”, we listen to a sad piano that gives the welcome to the savagery, we are in front of a Melodic Black Metal band; the first song is “Mirror The Darkened Masses”, although the tempo begins in a violent way then it lightens, in addition to include keyboards and brief passages of acoustic guitar, the song is long (it has more than 8 minutes), the vocals go from CRADLE OF FILTH to CANNIBAL CORPSE.

After listen to this first theme I realize that MALIGNANT INCEPTION is a band very very versatile, too many untimely changes, it’s very overwhelming… We follow with “Compelling Forces”, it begins quite melodic, a new school Black Metal ala DIMMU BORGIR, it’s not my cup of tea at all, and why are the songs so long?, this only contributes to make them boring…

The following theme is “The Soldier” with a quite modern sound, it follows the same line of the first themes, a nice solo is listened in the middle of the theme but it’s too new school for my taste, it has Death Metal touches but everything very unsuitable, lack of coherence, the sounds run over themselves forming a misshapen mass, it goes through the Melodic Black, Gothic, Doom and Death; it seems to me that these guys don’t find themselves.

We continued with “A Collage Creation”, the most inclined to the Death, it’s the longest song of the album with almost 11 minutes long, in my opinion this is best song of all this work since there is a great performance of the instruments (it is almost an instrumental), this time with passion and enthusiasm, coherence, clarity, the misshapen mass begins to get an interesting form, at the end the melodic touch returns but it follows the previous structure, it’s the best executed theme without doubt.

The sixth song is a very brief Minstro (less than 1 minute and half long), we listen to voices, specially the one of a desperate woman.

We continue with “My Before, As I Was Less”, where Zakk Muffett sings with guttural voice, this song also is inclined to the Death Metal, it’s a superior song compared with the ones we’ve been listening before, when the long themes evoked monotony; this, on the contrary, it's a good song.

We close the disc with “The End of the Beginning Prt. I - Concealed Silence”, it’s a theme ala OPERA IX, melodic and dark but with a defined unifying cord, with instruments that let listen to each other, although I’m not a follower of the genre now I recognize that this one is a very good theme, it will be lethal for the lovers of this type of Metal (the rhyme was not intended).

MALIGNANT INCEPTION has concentrated their best themes at the end of this album, for me only is worthy to take into account only the last half of this album.