EP REVIEW: The Gathering Of Souls – Malformed

Finnish death metallers MALFORMED may only have been active for little over a year, but the Helsinki-based quartet have already managed to make their mark on Finland’s impressive underground scene. Their debut demo, Uncontrollable Malformity, released in November last year, was a coarse and visceral piece of blistering and belligerent old school death metal with a technical finesse that set them apart from the majority of bands creating music in a similar vein. Their new EP, The Gathering Of Souls, possesses a lot of the same intensity and aggression that defined their demo, trimming what little fat there was within their sound and leaving only the leanest and most punishing elements in its wake.

Drowning In Emptiness is an intense start to proceedings, with frenetic guitars, equally cacophonous drums and dense, throaty vocals giving this a thick and imposing sound that draws a lot of influence from old school death metal. It’s a rabid and angular way to kick things off, going straight for the jugular rather than easing the listener into the record. The Gathering Of Souls – a short, sharp shock of a track – follows in a very similar vein, with blistering hooks and a tighter guitar sound, edging towards goregrind without fully shedding the underlying death metal. It sounds a lot more chaotic and technical, with the muscular guitar work and visceral gutturals being the focal point for most of the track.

Defiled, with its excellent, sludgy basslines and feral leads, is another full throttle aural assault that possesses a denser, groove-laden feel that sees the vocals and guitars shift to a measured, rhythmic style, allowing the brilliant drums and bass to carry the music in its less animated moments, and spotlighting just how impressive even the backbone of this band is. Enchantments Of Nihilism, with its biting melodicism and bellicose vocals, is another fast and furious slab of death metal with a jarring edge and grating undercurrent that transforms this into a more acerbic and savage offering than the first three, themselves unhinged and caustic efforts with a lot of speed and ferocity. Mind Refinery makes great use of slight discordance and impenetrable vocals to create a lean and sinister sound that has a sense of urgency to it, feeling positively demented at points, but still finding room for some fantastically catchy leads, matching the unerring energy of the rest of the songs but doing so in a much more accessible fashion.

Much like the band’s demo, The Gathering Of Souls has the sort of dirty production, unhinged tempos and an interesting blend of primitivism and virtuosic musicality that sets them apart from many of their peers within OSDM circles. The band do have a tendency to find their lane musically and stick within it, with each of these five tracks having a rabid and caustic feel that rarely shifts to a slower pace, but this lack of variety isn’t as pronounced as it could be, what with the music that is on display being absolutely fantastic and making it clear even so early on in their time as a band that MALFORMED already have the required songwriting skill and chemistry to create brilliant death metal. Hopefully, this band isn’t far removed from unleashing their first album, because with songs like the ones showcased here, they have all the ability in the world to make their first album an extremely memorable one.

Rating: 8/10

The Gathering Of Souls is out now via Extremely Rotten Productions.

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