MALIGNANT INCEPTION – Path To Repression

Malignant Inception’s history starts in early 1992 in the whereabouts of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. With an unstable line-up, the band managed to record an 11-song debut album, Black Death, that was released in 1997 on cassette tape through Slaughterhouse Records. Even though the album earned an enthusiastic response, the band didn’t get the necessary publicity to move on, and faced the dead end of splitting up.

On the spring of 2003, the founding members, Ed Price and Dave Jelsma (who was the bass guitar player in the first line-up) met each other to discuss their present and future musical status. The outcome of this meeting was the rebirth of Malignant Inception, with a fresh and motivated line-up. Without losing any more time, the band entered the studio and created their second full-length album under the title Path To Repression.

Despite the fact that the release is independent, the CD package is impressive with nicely done artwork and a lyrics booklet.

First of all, it should be mentioned that the duration of each of the six songs of the album (there are two intros) is something more than 8 minutes. This means that the album requires some additional hearings in order to get the whole picture and roll out the tangled skin of Malignant Inception’s compositions. The band plays something between Death and Black Metal. The Death side comes with a touch of Progressive Metal in the legendary style of Death, with a lot of tempo changes and sophisticated melodies. The Black Metal side presents influences from Dimmu Borgir’s pompous instrumentations and the evil atmosphere of the unholy Morbid Angel.

A short piano intro, “Induced Placement,” opens the album, and in the next track, “Mirror, The Darkened Masses,” Black Metal dominates with blast-beats, atmospheric keyboards, and the trademark Norwegian vocals. In “Compelling Forces” and “The Soldier,” the vocals get a little bit “lost” behind the very good lead and rhythm guitars. The “weak” vocal sound mix is the only flaw in the overall exemplary sound production where everything sounds in order.

The best track of the album is the almost 11-minute instrumental track, “A Collage Creation.” Here, the noteworthy composing and performing potential of the band unfold. The song is a musical travel with a lot of melody/tempo changes and an impressive collection of Progressive guitar riffs and fills.

High-pitched screams and harsh Grindcore vocals can be found in “Me Before, As I Was Less,” and in the closing track, “The End Of The Beginning Pt. 1 Concealed Silence.” Shredding riffs, fast percussion and a touch of keyboards conclude the brutal picture of the second Malignant Inception release.

The reviews on this album will definitely give readers conflicting perspectives, due to the fact that this is a difficult-to-listen-to album. Some will find it “boring” with long and exaggerated instrumentations, and others will see those same passages as proof of excellent musicianship. Unbiased Metal Express Radio readers who are into this music genre should without any question check out this release and be prepared to give some more audition time for the album to “grow” inside and prove its worth.