Infected Malignity
Re:Bel
7
Synopsis:
Sel:lout
Review:
Okay, so maybe that’s a bit harsh, but I thought it was clever.
Apparently the move from Unmatched Brutality over the Canada’s Galy was either smart or had a major influence on Japan’s Infected Malignity, who with their debut Malignity Born From Despair, delivered a kickass Suffocation worshiping slab of brutal, slammy death metal.
Now instead we get a hardcore tinged five tracks of almost Despised Icon ("Fictitious Follower") though far less fierce and even Neuraxis (especially moments of “Inequality Fancy” and “S.N.D”) sounding deathcore or heavy, death metal laced metalcore-its got sweeping harmonics, it’s got dumbed down hardcore vocals mixed with deep grunts, it's got a clean production, it's got tight blast beats and grooves, it's even got a couple of acoustic/introspective smatterings (“Waltz of the Rebellion”, “S.N.D”, “83712600”), and as you can tell from the song titles, the ‘typical’ death metal themes have also been dropped. It’s done well enough and the band seems able to morph into this style with relative ease and skill, but I’ll admit I was hoping for another brutal slab of Suffocation-ish death metal, not this trend hopping shift.
Still though, this is five tracks of competent and enjoyable modern metal – for fans of Despised Icon, Neuraxis as well as recent Internal Bleeding and newer Pyrexia -- take that as you will. Personally, I sort of enjoyed it once I got over the dismay of the style shift. EP closer “83712600” actually shows this Japanese trio have what it takes to deliver some nifty above average metal in their new genre and I wonder what a full album might be like. What this is not is a brutal Suffocation worship as per the debut, so if you, like me, were expecting a Malignity Born From Despair part II, go grab an Inveracity CD instead.
If you however like Galy’s general style of releases, Re:Bel , and it appears subsequent material, will fit right in next to Vortex, Anonymous, Bloodshoteye and Shaolin far more than they would next to the likes of Cenotpah, Insidious Decrepancy, Guttural Secrete, Heinous Killings and such over on Unmatched Brutality’s roster.
