The PR blurb hails Malamorte as Italian New Wave of True Heavy Metal Leaders that had me initially interested, with other info including heralding Alessandro Nunzaiati (Lord Vampyr from Theatres des Vampires) as a leader in the Italian scene with this side project. This is Malamorte’s sixth album. I have not heard of them before, the imagery certainly doesn’t fit with the usual “true heavy metal” credentials.
My excitement pretty quickly changes when I hit play. The sound is quite gothic and doesn’t have much bite leaving the drums sounding very processed. Vocally, there’s a sense of unease and sense of tight vocal chords for the style, but there are flashes of good sounds (the outro on ‘Reverend’ for example). I can hear what they are trying to do, but I don’t think they have it nailed down enough to pull it off. There is too much synth for my liking overall, it hampers the sound and shifts the focus. By comparison, Death SS (to use a lazy comparable – sorry) were a completely different character in their early years and I can’t help feeling that this is what Malamorte are trying to base themselves on, it may be worth addressing their earlier released material to be fair than to pass on my opinion possibly unfairly here, but I just wonder…
So as we go through ‘Slaves of God’ I hear all of those traits, the chorus itself it high enough to be likened by fans of the Canadian band Traveler; but that about all I would compare, just three words. ‘They Are Watching Us’ is more 80’s glam rock with the chord progression, delving into 90’s gothic metal styles driven primarily by the synth overtone. The chorus line is catchy, the whole sense of the tune once it gets going is bouncy, and possesses an almost happy gloom. It’s a mixed emotive for me. ‘The Temple’, well this is just a touch weird, again until the verse start proper, is it Spinal Tap metal, just a bit! The album title track is keyboard driven, but again, its positions itself incorrectly for me, as if added because they can, the intros definitely need a lot more thought. Once the tracks start to go properly, you get a hook and melody. The oddball nature simply doesn’t fit for me at all. Artistic license is not something for me to fairly scoff at, but I don’t get any stable sounds. Once you hit a groove, Malamorte are off again on a tangent. Guitar solos are often brief, simple and sometimes structured. Although I like the second one in the title track. ‘Witch’ has a galloping style like some older US metal, again fragmented by gothic influence. A track like ‘The New Messiah’ may well tempt Ghost fans to the fold, I only say this from the on time that I hear at the start of the track and there’s some battle hard break outs later one akin to some power metal styles. ‘Apocalyptic Visions’ is pure synth metal, that’s all I say about that. ‘Reverend’ is another crazy clever track, having styles and many influences not associated with an expected sub-genre, to be fair, it’s quite catchy.
Unfortunately, I haven’t found this enjoyable, in fact it’s been a struggle to pick out positivity as I simply don’t like this album. It doesn’t match the PR description on little bit although when you look at the heritage, you should really draw conclusions from that really as it fits with those eccentric electronic gothic influences trying to break new ground. Unfortunately for me in any case, it’s not there yet.
(5/10 Paul Maddison)
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