Malignant Aura comes out of Australia’s depths.
Created in 2018, the band releases a first EP the same year. Their Old School Doom/Death will be back to life in 2022 with Abysmal Misfortune is Draped Upon Me, at Bitter Loss Records.
The album begins with the ice-cold and crushing Malignant Aura which unveils worrying vocals, melted to an impressive rhythmic. The abrasive and heady sound meets some sharp harmonics which borrow from the rawest roots anchored into this haunting slowness, then blackness drive us to the dissonant In A Timeless Place Beneath The Earth, a composition which will become very contrasted. Between devastating parts and the oppressive slowness, the band knows how to handle its misty universe to shroud us with its darkness before placing vocal parts or fierce leads, while There Is Blackness In The Water quickly shows some energy on drum parts. The song, which is the longest of the album, calms down to become quite majestic while being still dissonant, but saturation comes back to walk with metallic percussions before presenting us a rage explosion, then it will be appeased again before letting Abysmal Misfortune Is Draped Upon Me and its introductive sample unveil us an abrasive and weighing melancholy. Once again, drums injects this energy to weighing and disturbing sonorities, then Soliloquy Beneath The Sepulchre offers hooking melodies linked to this heavy and effective rhythmic. Very haunting, the composition can sometimes place softer elements before flooding us with dissonance on this very mysterious final, while …And So It Was That I Lay Down Forever comes to close the album with a melting between burdening quietness, dissonant blackness and more violent roots. Some Gothic influences also add some shades to the song, like those clean vocals parts coupled to the last riffs.
Even mysterious, Malignant Aura has its own style anchored into the most Old School elements. With Abysmal Misfortune is Draped Upon Me, the band claims its roots while unveiling an abrasive, raw and weighing melancholy. The style’s enthusiasts will love it.
80/100