Malignant Altar - Realms of Exquisite Morbidity (2021)^{Release ID: 32911}

Malignant Altar are already familiar to me with their second demo from 2019 already adorning my music library. I recall picking them up around the time that Maggot Stomp started to make waves in the underground, with MA being one of the many OSDM bands that inhabited that filthy roster of theirs.

Retaining the same line up as the first two demo sees the band able to build on the promise of the more crawling and cavernous death metal nicely. This sounds like a band who have played together for a while; showcased nicely on the flowing opening to Usurping the Pantheon Crown which feels tight. The track itself then shifts through various stages of nefarious death metal, replete with some Morbid Angel-like sonics thrown in casually like Trey Azagthoth just did a drive-by sonic shooting through the studio almost randomly as they recorded the track.

With comparisons with the style of Azagthoth and co almost inevitable, it is only fair to point out that there is more to the Malignant Altar palette than just some benign old school worship. You will get hits of Cianide, Incantation, Dead Congregation as well as more modern references like Tomb Mold and Cerebral Rot thrown into the mix. As such Malignant Altar are a band who seem to know very much where they sit in the death metal spectrum; able to nod to their influences and their peers alike in a very assured acknowledgement of their surroundings.

The ghastly vocals of Wilson P are reminiscent of Craig Pillard and are the perfect accompaniment to those huge riffs. These gargantuan slabs of death metal riffing are underpinned by an agonising melodic wail at times (Ceremonial Decapitator) that coat proceeding in a desperate atmosphere of anxiety and hopelessness. I do not really care that the album does not change that much in terms of its formula, I find there are enough subtle nuances from track to track that I pick up on with repeated listens to keep me entertained and coming back for more. In some regards, its appeal is not always as obvious as I first thought, and it is one of those records that rewards with repeated listens.

Realms of Exquisite Morbidity is a fantastic celebration of death metal that commemorates what has come before it whilst saluting the modern scene also. No fucking frills death metal is alive and well and living in Houston, Texas.

I once again find myself in an unusual position to end another year with me reviewing an album in a subgenre that I rarely partake in. Last year it was Sunami and beatdown, this year I find myself partaking in a little OSDM revival.

Malignant Altar debut full length record is one that took me aback at first. The record is heavy with its pummeling guitars, drums and guttural vocals. But something about this album does not feel as disjointed as so many revival OSDM bands seem to resort to. For starters, you'll notice a significant drop off in the excessive use of blast and skank beats. The grooves are much slower and the band use their time to expand upon riffs and motifs. These tunes feel like they have been given a purpose beyond the bog standard "play really fast and then, suddenly, breakdown" mentality that plagues modern metal/deathcore in addition plenty of other breakdown heavy subgenres. Tunes stand out from one another to a point as "Usurping the Pantheon Crown" and "Ceremonial Decapitator" take advantage of the extended runtimes.

Unlike many death metal albums I have reviewed in recent months, this one actually has some bass presence to it and the instrumentals have a pronounced thickness to them that cannot be understated. Even as some of the more "technical" guitar passages sound flubbed and stitched back together, it is the bass that brings those chugging riffs back into place. As well the percussion is locked in with the bass and very little of this album sounds like it's falling apart at the seams. I do think that the cymbals (specifically the ride) are mixed a little too heavy as the resonation does get in the way of the rest of the mix. The filthiness of the bass breaks on "Ceremonial Decapitator" and the closer "Rite of Krause" cannot go overlooked.

Beyond that, most of my issues with this brand of OSDM still do apply. Even though the riffs themselves stand out between tracks, without a true melody linking ideas together, it can get quite frustrating listening to this record and wondering where one track ends and another starts. Similarly, many of the transitions between ideas on tracks sound cool at first, but by the time you reach the end of the album, you can already tell where each track is going to go based on what musical trope the band decides to pull out of their magic hat. At the end of the day, this record will not be taking Dead Congregation's spot at the top of the throne anytime soon, but if you want a OSDM sound with an emphasis on doom metal, you can do a lot worse.