Malfeitor – Incubus (2009)

After their amazing debut album “Unio Mystica Maxima”, Malfeitor is back with their aggressive raw Black Metal. Featuring M. Fabban of Aborym on bass and vocals you can start to imagine what to expect from this band.

This Italian five-piece have been around only since 2006, and since their first release they have been turning heads. The band has managed to create an astounding combination of old school Swedish and Norwegian Black Metal that is very grim and raw.

Ten tracks featuring cold and guitar driven Black Metal is what you will find in “Incubus”, no fancy keyboards or any sort of arrangements only true BM that will have you headbanging from start to end. The rawness of the music is perfectly showcased by the albums crystal clear production, something that is very rare these days.

The main characteristic of this release has to be the blistering fast speed that is presented both in the guitar work (like Dark Funeral, Marduk) and the bestial drumming. Both of these instruments are impressive to say the least since they have a tremendous pace that brings back the good old memories of the first days of Scandinavian BM. But don’t think Malfeitor is a one dimensional band that only provides speed, they also have some great changes in the pace of the music during some of their tracks adding extra depth to the band’s already impressive sound.

M. Fabban’s vocals are pretty standard for a BM release and don’t feature the occasional mournful screams and deranged shrieks that other bands use, but they are very effective and get the job done is a perfect manner.

The last track of the album is a very weird, since it’s more like noise rather than BM, but provides a very good closing track for this masterful opus of true raw evil.

If you like old Immortal, Watain, Marduk, etc, this is the release for you since you will be blown away by Malfeitor since track one. I have to say that “Incubus” is one of the best and different sounding BM releases that have reached my mailbox.

Release: August 31st, 2009

Country: Italy