Malfeasance - Malfeasance album review
About the band
Malfeasance are a deathcore band formed in 2020 in Connecticut consisting of vocalist Joseph Gainly, guitar/bassist Steve Gainly and drummer Jeremy Martin, they released their self titled debut album in February 2021.
Album art
The Review
The album has 12 tracks beginning with the intro ‘Venous’ it starts out with what sounds like random TV noises before getting into what sounds like an emergency signal, like the type played on TV during a national emergency. The narrator names off areas with “violent arrests” it ends by morphing into the next track, although it's kind of hard to hear it sets a certain tone for the album, that there's some kind of national threat, the message tells listeners to stay inside and avoid people acting aggressively, almost as if its something uncontrollable, it's definitely a unique introduction and gets you listening. As stated previously this track bleeds into the next titled ‘VNHOLY’, the track starts out with a short heavy instrumental before a pause then the harsh vocals kick in. The track starts out at a slowish pace but the vocals begin to speed up through it, the drums keep a solid fast almost bullet like pace and the guitar and bass match the speed of the vocals, Vocalist Joseph has a talent for deep growls and very heavy vocals. The song periodically pauses and slows before the vocals and instrumentals burst through. Around 2 minutes in there's an instrumental with sporadic vocals before the drums kick into full gear and we get what sounds like a long growl. The long growl happens twice before the music cuts out and a sound I can’t name is heard that continues for the last 56 seconds of the track.
The next song kicks in straight away named ‘Death of the mind’ this song continues similar to ‘VNHOLY’ but ends with what sounds like a church bell chiming a few times, there's a tiny pause before ‘Slave and I’ (The next track) begins but again we begin slowish and build up to a bell before the vocals kick in, again still following what came before it the song is heavy with heavy vocals, during the song near the end it kind of sounds like you can hear a piano over the more traditional metal instrumental the drums around this part are played in a way it sounds like a gun being fired and we get a noise I can only describe as ‘The kid from the grudge’ the drums cymbals eventually sound us out and we go into the next track ‘R1FT’ which starts with a drum solo.
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Again it follows the formula of the songs before it, not much I can say without repeating myself, ‘Let the lord of the black land come forth’ is next and the beginning is raw and almost sounds like its being played in a room with an echo, it's kind of fuzzy sounding but suddenly kicks into the same sound we've been hearing the past few songs.The ending goes similar to how the beginning sounded we also hear a sound like someone walking in the snow or on gravel and a sound that kind of seems like its supposed to be a howling wind with an unplugged sounding electric guitar strumming in the background, the footsteps get clearer and clearer almost as if they’re getting closer to the listener before stopping.
‘What's a place like you doing in a grave like this’ for one is an odd title and two begins with what sounds like a choir before we hear what I assume is a violin section the drums come in almost ringing out again like bullets and the choir is abruptly stopped in favour of the heavier sound, this song ends with some speaking I can't make out and static noises. ‘Respite’ has no lyrics and is only 21 seconds long and that's all I can say for it. I just wanted to mention it. The next song ‘Sins of kin’ follows the formula and doesn't have anything really worth noting, it leads directly into ‘The rot of purgatory’ which ends with a really cool guitar sound but again isn’t something to really dig into, ‘Blackened Dominion’ is similar, by this point the band have a certain sound and they don’t change it much, the last song ‘Child of the baphomet’ Starts with what I think is a slow violin a guitar and piano start as well, it has no vocals and keeps the slow pace, its also just over a minute and a half, its definitely a nice end to the album.
The Conclusion
So overall this is a really solid release, the vocals are well done, the instruments are well done and it has a lot of extra shit that just makes it sound cool (what can I say, i’m a sucker for musical theatrics) , everything from the spoken additions to the random sound they work together to create a certain atmosphere, you should definitely check this release out.
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Links and music
You can check Malfeasance out on Spotify and follow them on Facebook and Instagram while you’re at it, thanks for reading.