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Malamor: Dead to the world
27/11/08 || Daemonomania
New York style death metal gets a lot of shit for being slammy, chuggy, and derivative. We all know who started the style, and we’re all pretty tired of hearing endless clones attempt to replicate their sound. The clones have succeeded only in driving the subgenre right into a brick wall. Or right off a peak in the Catskills. Right onto that sleeping Rip Van Winkle fuck’s head. Fuck that legendary motherfucker. Drink a cup of coffee already.
Anyway…if you’ve ever been past the Bronx and into what we city-centric folks call “upstate,” you’ll know there’s some cool stuff and some shitty stuff to see. Lots of wilderness, some mountains, some shitty suburbs, some rusted machinery half-covered under tarps in people’s front lawns, even some hippies/rednecks. I’m guessing that the members of Malamor (to love all that is evil, including Knievel – gay) are drawn from the latter category. Some dudes who got tired of just listening to “Pierced from within” while they worked on beaten up Camaros and decided they’d give death metal a shot.
Well, despite their honorable intentions it sounds like they have nowhere near the skills required to emulate their mentors. Instrumentally, lyrically, mentally. It took them FIVE FUKKIN YEARS to write amazing words like these from “Fuckers like you”:
Criticize, those who know
You piece of shit
Why don’t you, get fucked!
Malamor should have gotten in touch with Spartacus to help ‘em with the lyrics. Get that man a plane ticket, a leather shirt, and some blastbeats and he would have whipped the whole crew into shape. As you can see, there seems to be a strong hardcore element to the proceedings, with an hxcx flavor concerned with respect and kicking ass and PUNISHMENT for all our sins. The breakdowns sound tuff as well.
Enough criticism. These guys do have some groove. And the vocals are competent. The disc isn’t painful to listen to, just monotonous. And…uh…I’m done. After somehow touring with a million US death metal bands and headlining a few shows in Japan (where old bands go to die) these dudes are painstakingly putting together another album. I wish them the best of luck in breaking free from the chains of obvious influences and mediocrity. That’s mal-amore!
Worst of all – Frank “Handshake” Mullen does guest vocals on the opening track. Why encourage this type of behavior Frank? WHY?
3 New Yorkments out of 10 .
- Information
- Released: 2004
- Label: Amputated Vein Records
- Website: www.malamor.com
- Band
- Ben Kolts: vocals, guitars
- Jason Kolts: vocals
- Drew Kerwin: bass
- Gavin Parsons: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Dead To The World
- 02. Fuckers Like You
- 03. Seduced To Fall
- 04. Drowned Only To Be Eaten (bummer, sounds like a gator attack)
- 05. Breeding Impurity (now there’s a Suffocation title)
- 06. A Part Of Me
- 07. Bless Me Father (for I have sucked)
- 08. In The Name Of…
- 09. Condemn The Rising
- 10. Suicide Machine (Death cover) (again, WHY?)
