MALIGNANT INCEPTION (USA) “Path to Repression” (CD) – Recorded in August and September of 2005 at Boho Digitalia Recording Studio Salt Lake City, Utah – All music and cover art by Malignant Inception – Self-released 2006.- This disc arrives thanks to the amiability of Ed “The Emperor” Price, whom I apologize to (once again) for the big delay of this review. This it is the second album of these North Americans formed in 1992, the cover is quite ethereal, the booklet is printed in couch paper and it contains the lyrics (written by our friend Ed) in addition there are photos of the band members; the predominant colors are red and black; as far as the serigraphy it is quite simple.
This album contains 8 themes enumerated in Romans, the first one is an Intro called “Induced Placement”, we listen to a sad piano that gives the welcome to the savagery, we are in front of a Melodic Black Metal band; the first song is “Mirror The Darkened Masses”, although the tempo begins in a violent was then it lightens, in addition to include keyboards and brief passages of acoustic guitar, the song is long (it has more than 8 minutes), the vocals go from CRADLE OF FILTH to CANNIBAL CORPSE. After listen to this first theme I realize that MALIGNANT INCEPTION is a band very very versatile, too many untimely changes, it’s very overwhelming… We follow with “Compelling Forces”, it begins quite melodic, a new school Black Metal ala DIMMU BORGIR, it’s not my cup of tea at all, and why are the songs so long?, this only contributes to make them boring…
The following theme is “The Soldier” with a quite modern sound, it follows the same line of the first themes, a nice solo is listened in the middle of the theme but it’s too new school for my taste, it has Death Metal touches but everything very unsuitable, lack of coherence, the sounds run over themselves forming a misshapen mass, it goes through the Melodic Black, Gothic, Doom and Death; it seems to me that these guys don’t find themselves. We continued with “A Collage Creation”, the most inclined to the Death, it’s the longest song of the album with almost 11 minutes long, in my opinion this is best song of the all this work since there is a great performance of the instruments (it is almost an instrumental), this time with passion and enthusiasm, coherence, clarity, the misshapen mass begins to get an interesting form, at the end the melodic touch returns but it follows the previous structure, it’s the best executed theme without doubt. The sixth song is kind of like a very brief Minstro (less than 1 minute and half long), we listen to voices, specially the one of a desperate woman. We continue with “My Before, As I Was Less”, where Zakk Muffett sings with guttural voice, this song also is inclined to the Death Metal, it’s a superior song compared with the ones we’ve been listening before, when the long themes evoked monotony; this, on the contrary, it is a good song. We close the disc with “The End of the Beginning Prt. I - Concealed Silence”, it’s a theme ala OPERA IX, melodic and dark but with a defined unifying cord, with instruments that let listen to each other, although I’m not a follower of the genre now I recognize that this one is a very good theme, it will be lethal for the lovers of this type of Metal (the rhyme was not intended).
MALIGNANT INCEPTION has concentrated their best themes at the end of this album, for me only is worthy to take into account the last half of this album, I hope that in that line continues the work of this band.