Beats and yelling: Perdition Temple

Malign Apotheosis
Out 28^th November on Hells Headbangers

What ‘Malign Apotheosis’ lacks in fresh ideas it makes up for in just how tight and focused the music is. Vintage Tampa style riffing – most obviously Morbid Angel, but vestiges of fellow Morrisound regulars Malevolent Creation make their voice heard – collide with modernist percussive death metal, lending a degree of synthetic, mechanical strength to an otherwise organic, flowing occultism.

The production is somewhat muffled, replicating the experience of wearing earplugs at a gig. But to some extent this only strengthens the overall delivery, giving the impression that sitting behind the music is an additional layer of unused power standing in reserve. Drums cut through with muted aggression, Parmer’s performance neatly oscillating between linear bursts of speed and extended patterns of undulating, tugging rhythms, injecting a tension and dynamics sometimes lacking in the guitars. The latter of which obviously dominate the mix with a tone reminiscent of early Vader, excising enough muscle to impose upon the listener without collapsing into dirge in the faster passages. Aggressive mid-range vocals frame the finished product, consolidating the presentation of tight, premeditated violence offset by random bursts of chaotic energy.

Despite the almost relentless focus of the music, it tends to shift between competing impulses. At one end there is a more vintage DNA, reaching back to death metal in its germinal form as an extreme outlier of thrash. Here updated with more speed and rigid timing, leveraging the superior musicianship of modern metal to elevate what at times can be quite basic material. At the other end we get more elongated articulations of dark, melodic energy, defined by a looser rhythmic framing and a greater degree of freedom exercised to wander the fretboard.

In this sense, although Palubicki’s style is often referred to as blackened death metal, it could far more accurately be described as traditional death metal, and in that far more period correct than the majority of ostensibly “old school” outfits lauded by Decibel et al. One only has to compare this to early Vader, Death, Morbid Angel, or even Possessed to illuminate the overtly evil aesthetic of the genre prior to black metal claiming a monopoly on this territory.

The riffs may be paced out in hyperactive, impatient flows of physically demanding salvos, but knitted between this immediate impact is an array of dark, twisting melodic currents that lend an otherwise dry artefact a degree of mysticism and excitement. This is further aided by infrequent guitar solos that are equally liable to swing from disordered noise to more considered, richly textured melodramatic flows. Due to the speed and monotony of the pacing, there’s a “blink and you’ll miss it” element to garnering deeper enjoyment from this material. But a considered listener will find rewards a plenty nestled within this densely packed sardine can of riffs.