Finland boasts a rich yet unsung lineage of death metal bands. While everyone romanticizes Florida and Sweden, they’re quick to forget the likes of Convulse, Demilich, Rippikoulu, and a slew of others who pushed metal to its outer limits. Over 30 years since the initial Finnish death metal revolution, the Scandinavian country is still producing memorable bands of this nefarious nature, the latest example being Disguised Malignance, who ironically don’t sound Finnish at all. No, if you listened to this album blindly, you’d be forgiven for thinking these savages hailed from the sun-scorched wasteland of Tampa.
Considering the high caliber of the group’s collective musical abilities, you’d also be forgiven for thinking this was a band of veterans who lived through death metal’s late ’80s/early ’90s heyday, paying homage to the music of their youth. Instead, we have 5 maniacs in the thick of their youth, the average age of the band being 18. This isn’t the craziest thought when one considers all of the classic death metal bands of yesteryear were roughly the same age when cutting their now masterpiece albums. It is, however, crazy now that members of said classic death metal bands are old enough to be these kids’ dads and even granddads!
Disguised Malignance’s debut assault, Entering the Gateways, is a hellish display of old school death metal that pulverizes the listener immediately. Comparisons can be made to Steve Tucker era Morbid Angel and early Gorguts in the sense that while there are technical tendencies within the solos and individual performances, the songs themselves are straightforward and lethal. In other words, death metal that masquerades as technical. Cuts like “Unearthly Extinction” and “Remnants of Serenity” exemplify this approach, daring you to ignore the mastery on display.
Other prevalent traits of this album are the incorporation of knuckle-dragging mosh passages and its impeccable production. Now despite the bludgeoning Cannibal Corpse-esque breakdowns on songs like “Confined” and “Malignant Visions”, by no means are Disguised Malignance a “mosh band” of hardcore kids co-opting the death metal aesthetic for scene cred. They just know how to switch things up amidst the high speed, bone-snapping insanity which dominates throughout. Also dominating is, as I said, stellar production values. I can’t remember the last death metal album I heard where every instrument was equally loud and clear without sounding sanitized. Hell, even the bass rumbles its way through your headphones with muscle!
I’d be remiss to go through this review without mentioning my choice cut, “Disengagement into Eternity”: A 7+ minute prog-death suite that can only be described as a jam between Morbid Angel and Rush. I usually don’t like my death metal veering too far off the bloody path, but when you start jamming like my beloved triumvirate, you’ve got me hook, line, and sinker. One can only ponder how adventurous Disguised Malignance will get on album #2. Until then, we’ll be blasting album #1 and throwing the hell down to every minute of it. Death metal lives in the youth of today!
7 out of 10
Label: Prosthetic Records
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Morbid Angel, Gorguts, Cannibal Corpse