Malignant can more or less be seen as “the new band” from Occulterror, the former vocalist of Sepulchral Rites who teams up with her former band mate Devilblast on drums. The ladies found a suitable guitarist in Hydrargyrum (Antipurification, Deglaver, Devotion and ex-Envenomed) to record their debut demo tape that was materialized by Iron Bonehead Productions by the end of 2024.
Although Malignant and Sepulchral Rites do share the same background in old school and evil sounding Extreme Metal, Malignant is primarily based on Death Metal aesthetics. The dark and at times even slow riffs do convey a true Death/Doom Metal atmosphere, leaving open comparisons with the many bands in that particular genre from the early 90’s. Yet, while the majority of the presented material is solid Sadistic Intent-like Death Metal, a certain Black Metal spirit in the music is hard to deny. Especially Occulterror’s harsh and heavily reverbed vocals do add a lot to that Blackish spirit.
Regardless of all the recognizable elements, no wheels are being reinvented here, the music sounds still remarkably fresh. Even with the thoroughly rotten and putrid riffs and vocals, it still sounds fresh. But that is mainly because of the dynamics that’s found in the different tempos, the rather catchy melodies (without going into Desaster/Deströyer 666 territories) and the tremolo picking. It all melts together beautifully into a very interesting and promising debut demo.
