Show Review: Malignancy at the Maryland Deathfest

May 28th-30th the Slam-Minded team attended the eighth annual Maryland Deathfest in Baltimore, Maryland. MDF is the best extreme metal festival in North America bar none, and I hope at last a few of our readers got to attend. There were tons of good bands, but the one most pertinent to this blog was Malignancy, who played Friday evening. Personally I'd prefer a couple more brutal death bands at the fest, but I understand that bands like Autopsy and Pestilence will draw a bigger crowd.

If there could only be one brutal band, Malignancy was not bad choice. They play a very dynamic style with a lot of different elements. If someone described them as slamming brutal technical deathgrind they would not be wrong. They play a very unique style that incorporates slams, but employs only at the perfect time, surrounding them with grinding tech riffs. After some initial banter from the vocalist, the band launched into their brand of fast, technical and brutal death metal. One might expect a band this fast and technical to experience a drop off in live play, but that was definitely not the case here. Everyone sounded really good and, unlike some of the other bands at the fest, all of the instruments were very clear. This was really fun stuff and it was a joy to watch a veteran band pull off some impressive feats of musicianship.

The set list ranged throughout their discography, and due to the short length of most of their songs we got to hear quite a few. I'm most familiar with Malignancy's 2007 full length Inhuman Grotesqueries so I was most excited about those tracks. "Neglected Rejection" sounded amazing live. They also played a couple new tracks off their upcoming album. Not sure when that's coming out, but the tracks sounded excellent. No real change in the formula, but that's fine when the formula is already varied and unique. I will certainly be purchasing the album when it appears.

A special mention also has to be made for Danny's stage banter, which was surprisingly funny. Most metal bands just stay super grim or play up the "woo beer!" angle when they're on stage, so it was enjoyable to see someone with some charisma.


Final thoughts, Malignancy were great, Maryland Deathfest was awesome. Do not miss either if you can help it!