Supreme Brutal Legions Vol. 2

This is infinitely easier to find than the first Supreme Brutal Legions release, which appears to be absolutely nowhere and for some reason released by a different label- no idea what the idea there is. Anyway, it seems to be a set of releases geared as splits between brutal death and death/grind bands; I purchased this one due to the inclusion of Infected Malignity, who, rather unsurprisingly, are the best band on the release (as they would be with nearly any split they did). The other pair are somewhat mediocre but not entirely bad, but in the end I can't recommend this to those who aren't massive brutal death fans; the quality of the material on display isn't going to sway anyone who doesn't like the genre and is only of light interest to those who are. Win some lose some I suppose.

Infected Malignity:

Like most early Infected Malignity material, the band's side is just made up of tracks which would later go on their sole full-length album as well as a couple live renditions. Unfortunately, unlike their follow-up four-way split, the production is pretty bad this time around, with very dominant drums and a weak, digital guitar tone. It's surprising what an effect this has on the music as a whole; it really strips away a lot of the power from what's ordinarily extraordinarily heavy and aggressive music. While the songs are still good- Jap slam with lots of technicality and convoluted song structures- the lack of good sound quality makes this hard to recommend. The live tracks are actually better, and so far the only officially-released Infected Malignity live material out there, conveying a great sense of ferocity and brutality even without a really established production job.

The live tracks are the big winners here and though the recorded material suffers from production flaws the music does shine through. This is easily the best side on the disc, though, so you might be better off just downloading these tracks and forgetting about the rest.

Malebolgia:

Malebolgia is one of the stalwarts of North Carolina's underground death/grind scene, seemingly more due to persistence than surprising quality. The band plays a fairly brutal, mildly technical variety of death metal not too far from the rest of Comatose Music's roster ala Lust Of Decay, but unfortunately doesn't have a great deal of personality. The band attempts to use some of the tightly turning and shifting song structures of mid-era Cryptopsy, but the riffs don't really stand on their own and the delivery of the music seems somewhat half-hearted, with a smothered production and inconsistent drum performance detracting from songs which already weren't spectacular. In the end this really just sounds like US brutal death, which isn't bad, but isn't nearly enough to keep my attention these days.

Apparently the band improved dramatically with their later full-length, but this split material isn't anything to write home about. Damned as likely the least interesting band on this split, you can safely skip this and not miss anything you haven't heard elsewhere.

Tragical Memories:

Probably the weirdest band on this split, this Indonesian band plays a sort of crazy, twisting style of death/grind which reminds me a lot of fellow Indonesians Dirty Infamous. There's a lot of strange elements on this side, from the very abrupt and linear song structures to the massively flanged-out guitars, but I can't say the songwriting really strikes me as anything but kind of aberrant and strange. Tragical Memories is odd but their oddness seems arrived at coincidentally and doesn't impact the overall quality of the music. The style is generally based on US brutal death with some European flair, I guess bringing Disgorge to mind mildly, but more sounding like just the phrase 'brutal death metal' than any band in particular. This music isn't bad (though it too suffers from production flaws) but again just doesn't have enough interesting elements to maintain my attention for long.

These guys have been around for a long time without receiving recognition (probably due to the tiny amount of material they've released) and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. This just feels behind the times and rather weak in general, so despite the weirdness present, this is another side that can be easily missed.

Conclusion:

Not much to see here; one out of three sides is really worthwhile and the rest are just curious. Download Infected Malignity's tracks and pass on the rest unless you're really interested in hearing what the most underground of brutal death is churning out these days. You probably aren't though.