Artist: Malicious
Country: Finland
Label: Invictus Productions
Formats: 12″ EP
Year: 2023
Invictus Productions always had a nose for some top notch bands operating on that wavery tipping point between Black Metal and Death Metal. In the past they have been offering the unworthy listener with acts like Antediluvian, Demonomancy, Diocletian and Gospel Of The Horns, just to name a random few of the label’s affiliated acts. Until this very day the Irish label is trying to dig up those gems that will make your ears bleed, and fairly, in almost all cases the label succeeds.
Almost in all cases. As with Malicious the label is maybe pushing it a bit too far. The Finnish band started out with the fairly decent ‘Mental Illness’ demo tape in 2012 and the ‘Black Fumes’ 12” EP that followed it up was not all that bad either. Both of these two earlier recordings had a dark and chaotic character, clearly mixing up the best of both Black- and Death Metal. I wouldn’t classify these two first recordings as mandatory or stand out material, yet it was done at a decent level of authenticity, yet it especially was the production that made them rather enjoyable.
Five years after the release of ‘Black Fumes’ the band returned with their debut full-length and first one for Invictus Productions. The nice and muffled sound was for the most part still there, yet the element of chaos was given more space into the musical balance of Malicious. Perhaps it does do justice to the band name, but on ‘Merciless Storm’ the band again pushed things further into the maelstrom of chaos. But while I love my fair share of non-musical chaos-driven madness, I feel that ‘Merciless Storm’ lost everything that the band once stood for.
Main thing is that the music sounds shrill and stripped from any form of depth. The accompanying promo text mentions Possessed and Morbid Angel as fitting references, well… That could be true for a bit on the previous releases, but I personally have a hard time fitting these allusions to ‘Merciless Storm’. There is nothing here that resembles the depths and ingenuity of Morbid Angel or the sheer catchy riff-based straight forwardness of Possessed. Unlike the inventiveness and dynamism of Morbid Angel, ‘Merciless Storm’ seems to have been cobbled together in a single afternoon without too much attention to structure or detail. Of course, that in itself can be its strength, but then it needs enough bite and conviction.
In just over 10 minutes this EP indeed storms over you in merciless ways, but it leaves very little impression. The raging instruments hardly complement each other and with the lack of meaning or musical direction, this merely feels like a senseless rehearsal recording of band that has no clue of where to go. Although I do respect and admire the label’s usual aesthetics and way of working, this to me doesn’t make much sense. And, don’t get me wrong, I have various degrees of mayhem and destruction ingrained in my DNA, be it Angelcorpse or Blasphemy, but I like to have it done the right way.
