Metal bands often aim to be mysterious and ambivalent. They feature cover art that is truly great, with hidden meanings, and band names that make you wonder how they came up with such clever names and what they really mean. Today, however, I am going to write about Pissgrave—the exact opposite of what I just described. Their band name and album art advertise exactly what you’re going to get: death.
Malignant Worthlessnes doesn’t wait for anybody to get ready. No intro, no lube, it goes straight into destruction of the nastiest kind. This is violence dialed up to 11 and it never slacks. You are getting tortured by a person who really enjoys it, and by the end, you will enjoy it, too. Pissgrave‘s music is another kind of “wall of sound” death metal, even more dense, more noisy, one that hits you in the face repeatedly until you bleed out and transform into a gory mush. There is a mid-tempo weaving riff omnipresent beneath all that ruckus that adds to the overall malignant atmosphere of this record. Malignant Worthlessness is not atmospheric in the traditional sense, but the sheer viciousness of its sound creates an uncomfortable atmosphere that fits like a glove (in an open wound).
Each track serves the purpose of being extreme and uncomfortable. They all blend seamlessly into the next, giving me exactly zero seconds to have a breather. On a casual listen it might seem that Pissgrave are just trying to be as brutal and disgusting as possible. However, there’s more to it. Tracks like “Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” or “Lamentation of Weeping Wounds” showcase not only insane riff talent, but also a relative experimentation Pissgrave is adding to the mix to make the album varied enough to keep it from becoming monotonous. Personally, I would love to see a more varied vocal style on an album filled with all kinds of nastiness.
Great death metal riffs veer into grind from time to time and are spiced up by quick, chaotic solos. Even when going relatively slow, Pissgrave produce a terrifying sound that lets you know it’s up to no good. Malignant Worthlessness is not a groundbreaking record, but the band executes this kind of senseless aural beating with such gory grace I almost wish to be a corpse for a split second.
