MALSTROM „Obligated By Obscurity (Demo) ”

Music: Melodic Death Metal
Website: http://www.malstrom.net
Country: U.S.A.
Cool songs: Eleven, Expire, Into the Malstrom

The winter of 2002 was the time of birth of MALSTROM. Long time co-conspirators Mike Capasso and Bill Angelini decided to form their own band and to rock some socks. They enlisted some other musicians, to sound cool , but after some time, things have changed and the band line up also. In September 2004 the newer squad started working upon some material, which resulted in releasing a demo ‘Obligated By Obscurity’.

And MALSTROM show that even a few little variations in songs are able to push them higher in the ranks of metal maniacs. This average death metal production would probably have got lost somewhere within the shelves of memory, but the originality and some freshness with which the musicians play, have saved the album from the complete abyss. ‘Eleven’ and ‘Expire’ are pretty cool songs, with classical but very powerful riffs and fantastic raw drum fills. Plus that furiously fast pace and motif changes in ‘Expire’. Those two pieces are very good, but the rest is quite weak and does not catch up with those better parts. And this suggests, that it does not pay to buy the whole album only to hear two good songs, whereas the rest is on the ground level.

The idea was nice, but again, it got lost somewhere in the material. The pace shifts often repeat (fast-slow-ultra fast-fast… etc. the same in each song). Although those repetitions are so common, they show that the concept has been lost somewhere around the third track.

note: 4/10

Tracklist

1. Shatterer of Worlds
2. Eleven
3. Expire
4. I Am Become Death
5. Into the Malstrom

Total playing time 33:24

Line-up

Mike Capasso – guitars
Bill Angelini – drums
Alex Coelho – bass
Jeff Jardine – vocals, guitars