Swedish Death Metallers ‘Maleficio’ formed in 1990 and released the album ‘Under The Black Veil’ in 2005. Now with their second album release ‘Go To Hell’ four years later one could accuse Maleficio of being lazy in their somewhat Metallica-esque time periods when it comes to releasing new material or then again just being downright fussy about the quality of the music that they are putting out. [To be fair they released a record breaking 18 demos between 1991 and 2004 PW].Thankfully it’s the latter and the music on offer here is exactly the quality you’d expect from a band with nigh on two decades of experience in the once fertile hotbed of the Gothenburg death metal scene.
The albums opening track ‘You Are Dead’ sets the tone perfectly, all crunching guitars, marauding drums and an appropriately hellish vocal delivery which sits nicely in the mix without being overpowered by everything else. This song is like a battering ram at times, almost like Marduk jamming with Satanic Slaughter and a drunken Seance hurling insults from the sidelines. If epic melodies combined with some brutality is your thing (and who doesn’t like a bit of that?) then this is definitely for you. The track ‘Piss On Your Corpse’ wins top marks in the song title stakes and also fares excellently in the musical stakes too. Once again those rampant guitar melodies once synonymous with the ‘Gothenburg sound’ comes flying out of the gates and into your face like some unstoppable barrage of old school aggression. The playing really is super tight and precise with a great sense of melody throughout.
‘Harbinger of death’ is possibly one of the best tracks off the album. Steady melodic riffs throughout, tight thrashy drumming and the middle section containing some spoken vocals reminding me very much of the spoken bits off Metallica’s ‘One’, then finishing off the track with a fast mix of a little solo and steady riffs. Another track that stands out from the rest as it sounds so different is ‘In the Name of the Holy’ which has a slice of acoustic guitar at the start of the track fitting in perfectly with the clean vocals which follow. ‘Burn’ is one of the slower tracks off the album. Nevertheless, it’s still heavy and the immense guitar work and vocal pattern on this reminds me of a lot of the folk/battle death metal that’s becoming popular.
On a whole, I thought the album was amazing! Clean, and crisp production work, grindy and crunchy guitars, the drumming work thrashy, and OK .. maybe sometimes sounding like your drumming on some pans (but it works) and a talented growly vocalist. Any Death metal fan should take time out and give this album a good listening to. I just hope these guys are this good and tight together live.
http://www.myspace.com/maleficiotheone
