There have been simpler times. Don't take that statement as me being nostalgic and contradicting a previous review, though. I'm merely stating that, some time in the past, there was an interval of time when things were less complex than they are in the present. Take, for example, the Cambrian period: back then all you had to do was swim around and evolve extremely slowly. No worries about global economy, taxes, jobs and such. Also, if someone had played an ultra-technical solo back then, they would have been praised like gods, and subsequently eaten. Save for the being eaten part, I always get the impression that the rest of the previous sentence also applies to mostly any time until about since a decade ago. Ever since then, showing technical prowess appears to have become something close to “masturbating at Starbucks” in the Frowned-Upon-o-Meter.
I'm not saying that that's necessarily a bad thing. I hate wading through 3 minute solos for something to happen as much as the other guy, but I don't believe that those instances alone are enough to justify dismissing anything fast and shreddy and confusing as “wankery”. The worst part of this is that people seem to ignore a more refined style of overly technical music, that employs technicality not to destroy fingers, but to challenge minds. Enter Inhuman Grotesqueries, where being as mind-annihilatingly unfollowable as possible takes as much of a backing role as it takes the center role. At face value, this is even more of a pure wankfest than Inhuman Rampage, what with the drummer going berserk at random moments, and the pinch harmonics that are present for about half the album length, and the vocalist mostly saying variations of “HORRR”. But after repeated listens and after analyzing the album time and again, it becomes apparent that this umpteen-notes-per-second music is more of an exercise in controlled unpredictability, rather than a self-indulgent orgy.
Look at the guy on the cover. That's pretty much what the music is like. Malignancy seem to have learned a characteristic way to pick up normal brutal death metal songs and then warp them to the point of unrecognizability. They have many tools to do this, such as the mid-riff spasms of technicality, random speeding up and speeding down, and ingenious bridges that turn out to be riffs, to name a few. Mix that with an unusual but obvious style of rhythmically challenging riffing and you have yourself enough ingredients to perfect a half-hour of very strong material. Really, they don't change the formula much, if at all. Just to get an idea of what I mean, the only track with something even remotely reminiscent of dynamics and melody is the song “Xenotransplantation”. Listen to “Xenotransplantation” and tell me if it's very dynamic or melodic. Not that this matters much, though. Because of how intricately tailored the music is, with nice details to pick up every now and all the freaking time, there's no reason for any more elements to be present.
One way or another, though, it's up to you, the listener, to make sense of Inhuman Grotesqueries. And your situation is not so good. You'll find yourself relistening song sections to understand where you are almost constantly, and you better get ready for a lot of frustration if you're going to venture into trying to make sense of the chaos. I do recommend that you do, though, because when you do, you actually begin to realize how well written the material here really is. Believe me, the songs do make at least a little bit of sense once they're dissected deep enough. This album is kinda like a jar of chocolate chip cookies, if the cookies were mixed with sushi, beef stroganoff, lutefisk and a slight hint of smoked owl. It's a level above the regular stuff, and it's the sort of thing you ingest calmly and with an open mind, enjoy it for what it is and have to learn to appreciate. Even after having proven myself worthy, though, after the eighth Aberration Cookie I just want a regular one.
Standout tracks:
Indigenous Pathogen
Predicated Malformations
Embryological Teratomas
Benign Reabsorption
Xenotransplantation
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