Review Summary: Re-arrange your face (or playlist) with this inhuman showcase of extreme sound
Tied-down, anatomically rearranged, and forcefully rattled to the point of internal combustion…this, like the album cover, will leave the listener temporarily thinking impaired. Malignancy emerged from Yonkers along with death neighbors Immolation and Suffocation back in 1992, but unlike their contemporaries, managed to stay under the radar a little more. A more technical, grinding onslaught makes for a violent listen and difficult premises for musical analyzers. Yes folks, the legend metal heads are still at it, adding more enjoyable nuisances to their style, this time naming the hate-child- “Inhuman Grotesqueries”. Actually being a part of the “brutal bands” little club, kids, take notes.
The title track begins with a gorgeous acoustic guitar passage then, twelve seconds in the mood is hilariously changed. A sudden rush of panic and claustrophobia fills the atmosphere. Laser-quick drum patterns synchronize with guitar-neck-abused rapid shifting and are lead by a berserk banshee seeking revenge for something or other. The most noticeable feature knitted throughout the album is the seemingly fetish-like pinch-harmonics. Seriously, one can hear a pinch every one-thousand milliseconds in some hot spots of the album. Well, it was bound to happen; playing on the fret-board alone became boring, therefore Malignancy created equilibrium between harmonic squeals and “regular” riffing. The intricate song-writing is one of the most impressive feats of this masterpiece. Oftentimes, it’s more difficult for the listener than the performer in this case. It is obvious that these legendary death kings have mastered their weapons and humorously enough, are getting bored of standard shred. The vocals are spewed usually in the same realm of appalling gutturals, switching back-and-forth from deep to deeper. Not to worry though, once in a while an eye-gouging screech can be heard.
Lyrically, it would appear that someone had studied at medical school or is at least partially interested in anatomy. “Replicating vital parts becomes habitual…Regenerative appendage growth systems…Facility functions with full production line…Self contained human form…Bio-mech synthoids…natural disorder”. Yet the wordplay is still readable to the average schmuck (unlike the perhaps more scholarly texts of Viraemia) and not extremely over-the-top-violent like so many bands that try too hard to be “metal”. The artwork for this album should leave anyone gazing in disbelief at the imagination and possibility of stretched-limitation. Yes, it is in fact more metal to be a surgeon that it is to be a Satan invoking, hell hallucinating, cold-blooded killer.
While most of the tracks seem to meet in the same unmemorable territory, there are certain checkpoints in some songs that slow down for a sensational groove. Most notable is “Neglected Rejection” where one of the complimentary patterns is a slightly off-beat groove that will have you nodding for multiple replays. Sadly, unless either an extreme death-grind fan or audio-masochist, the overall production and constant shred will leave some doing nothing more than frivolously appreciating the talent, and never spinning the album again. Nevertheless, “Inhuman Grotesqueries” is a severely underrated, under-noticed album which shows Malignancy will stay true to the game of unrelenting metal until they are surgically altered after death. Taking tech-death to a frightening new level, it’s almost worrisome to see what they will spawn next.
