Malignancy: Eugenics (2012)

Reckless Technicality

Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

Malignancy has been around for a long time, forming in the early 1990's, but despite hearing of the band several times, for some reason I had just never gotten around to checking them out. Until now that is. Malignancy formed out of the same area of the country and in the same general time frame as Immolation and Mortician. But other than playing death metal, they really do not have a lot of similarity to them. Malignancy is far more technical than their more straightforward death metal peers.

The music on this release is hyperactive, technical, and bizarre. Malignancy is a brutal death metal band that utilizes a lot of very technical riffs and sweeps throughout their songs. But there is just something off-kilter about their brand of technical brutal death metal. The whole thing feels off somehow. Malignancy does not really follow a lot of the cliches and expected ideas that a lot of technical death metal bands do. Though their style is definitely technical, something about them just does not fit in with groups like Necrophagist, Obscura, or any other bands. I am not sure how to explain it really, something is just different about Malignancy.


I suppose for one thing, Malignancy does not write terribly long songs. The longest song on this release is less than five minutes long and most of them do not even touch four minutes. This means that the band does not thrown riff after riff and sweep after sweep for an interminable period. Each song will end, and fairly quickly.

Another unusual aspect is the attention to the rhythm section. The drums and bass really steal the show on this release. The beat and rhythms are constantly evolving and changing throughout the release. It never feels calm and complacent. The whole thing is fairly unsettling and makes this a difficult album to listen to as background music. It simply demands attention.

Unfortunately, after the album is over, it is hard to pick out highlights. Nothing really stays fresh in the mind. That is often a problem for technical death metal, and it shows through here as well. The vocals are also a tad on the boring side as they do not tend to change much throughout the album. But while listening, this is certainly an interesting release. Perhaps it will be a grower.

The Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars



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