Artist: Malignancy
Country: USA
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Formats: LP
Year: 2025
Next chapter of Hells Headbangers Records’ quest to reinstate some of Brutal Death Metal/Grindcore classics is Malignancy’s ‘Intrauterine Cannibalism’. A record that indeed fits just perfectly with more recent reissues like Mortal Decay’s ‘Sickening Erotic Fanaticism’, Rotting’s ‘Crushed’, the Exhumed/Hemdale split LP or the series of re-releases of those Mortician and Last Days Of Humanity records that saw the light of day in the last couple of years.
Although the word “classic” is always somewhat subjective, in the case of Malignancy’s most iconic work, it is at least justified to speak of the band’s debut album as a milestone in Grind-infused Brutal Death Metal. Not only because of the band’s deep involvement in the North American Death Metal scene from the mid- to late 90’s with sharing members with Mortician and Mortal Decay, or the great influence the album had on its peers, but what is perhaps most striking about ‘Intrauterine Cannibalism’ is that after more than a quarter century, it still stands as proudly as ever. Many records from the same era may still have a certain charm and exude the zeitgeist perfectly, but have lost musical relevance over those many years. That is certainly not the case here, Malignancy’s debut album still sounds as vital and bold as when it was first released in 1999.
An important advance service announcement is that Hells Headbangers Records has thankfully chosen to use the original 1999 audio for this vinyl edition. The album has since seen many re-releases, with a remastered version popping up at one point. As is often if not usually the case when the sound is tinkered with: it does not improve it and it saps the soul out of what is dear to many. So, props for keeping things they were initially intended!
Musically then. ‘Intrauterine Cannibalism’ wasn’t an album that reset the genre’s values or redefined the musical framework for Brutal Death Metal, but what it did do was to almost perfectly balance out all the loose parts that many other bands still let drift around unhinged. It has the brutality of early Suffocation and mid-90’s Cannibal Corpse, the technical sophistications of the first two Cryptopsy albums and the overall frantic ferocity of Grindcore. All three of these individual elements are used in almost equal parts, blending it together in something deadly to this day. It is all about mixing in crafty twists and turns in terms of pace and riffs, brutal bellowing vocals and amazing drum work. But, although that by itself is not something totally unheard of, even at that time, it is the sonic mould it is presented in that seals the deal. The production is as heavy as a ten ton hammer, almost feeling like a stampeding steamroller. It doesn’t only complements the crushing riffs or the relentless drumming, but maybe even more so the trademark vocal delivery of Danny Nelson, propelling it to a proper extra instrument not inferior to the others.
The album is presented in a few different versions, but all done in the well-known Hells Headbangers Records level of quality. So, if you passed on the Goatlord Records-released vinyl version from 2013, that now yield amounts in excess of 100 bucks, then this is the time to contemplate that sin and save your soul. What’s next Hells Headbangers Records?
