Extreme metal has never been a stranger to experimenting in a way that can be quite off-putting to some people if not become downright nightmarish for everything that is dared to be brought forth from the darkest reaches of imagination. We’ve seen plenty of instances of a band rising out of the void to deliver unto us an experience that cannot easily be likened to much else, but it’s always eventually that a band comes along that defies norm, expectations, and anything that we can easily wrap our brains around. Malignant Spirit, the child of some of the most gifted musicians in this demented corner of the underground, is that band.
We, as people, really seem to like putting things into their own little categories. It makes things feel a little bit easier and less chaotic as we navigate life, and that absolutely applies to metal as we sift through the underground, mindlessly throwing bands into a comfortable set of boundaries that makes them more palatable and understandable whether that’s our conscious intent or not. Every now and then, something comes around that makes an active effort to work against such easy categorization. Many times over have we seen acts come forward within the confines of black or death metal that challenge our understanding of the sounds, but it’s only a matter of time before we’re granted a vision that doesn’t fit neatly. Rather, the work in question is downright abominable in its intent, terrifying in its execution, and singularly captivating in its grotesque magnificence.
With their first album, Malignant Spirit offers extreme metal to us in a rare form that we’d be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
It would be a terrific understatement to simply put “A Serpent to Devour, A Servant to Abhor” anywhere in the meager boundaries of black and death metal with extreme metal being the only way one could comfortably tag the performance. Even then, that’s the only comfortable thing about this truly diabolical creation. A malefic entity brought to us from minds behind other sinister acts like Venomous Echoes, Sleep Paralysis, and Veilburner, it’s here with Malignant Spirit that these musicians feel truly unchained and unrestrained in a way that each amplifies the others power, bouncing off each other in such a way that leaves the listener truly maddening by the visions that are to be found throughout each of these nine otherworldly sermons of the beyond. Not a record that settles for long in easily discernable rhythms or melodies, “A Serpent to Devour, A Servant to Abhor” certainly must be what a portion of Hell sounds like. Cacophonous and malicious even in its smallest moments, this is a record that never ceases even well after you have left it for it echoes in your skull incessantly without end. The terror of the effort is not easily washed off nor is it something that we can easily unravel for Malignant Spirit has crafted something that’s simply unlike much of what else is out there.
Efforts like this are truly few and far between. Malignant Spirit has channeled something truly evil with everything that’s been accomplished throughout these eight tracks with the record almost certainly one of the most sinister creations of the year and likely one of the finest as well. “A Serpent to Devour, A Servant to Abhor” is most certainly not for the weak lest Malignant Spirit swallow such a poor soul whole only to end up in the most forbidden reaches of what Hell has to offer.
LISTEN to “A Serpent to Devour, A Servant to Abhor” on Bandcamp here.
FOLLOW Malignant Spirit on Instagram here.
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