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MALTHUSIAN “The Summoning Bell”
MALTHUSIAN “The Summoning Bell”
By Dr. Abner Mality
The word “Malthusian” refers to the theories of English economist Thomas Malthus, who believed that population growth would overtake the production of food and other resources, leading to mass starvation and poverty. So any band named after this guy is bound to be a light-hearted explosion of joyful pop.
No? You’re kidding me. Well, you’re right...MALTHUSIAN is an Irish death metal band that sounds especially doleful and chaotic. There’s good news and bad news with this bunch. First, the good. If you’re looking for brain-crushing heaviness, you’ve found it. The sound on this thing is absolutely massive...the drums sound like cannons and the dissonant guitars are utterly grinding. The band also know how to play. I wouldn’t call this tech-death, but there’s more going on than caveman riffs.
The bad is that this falls into an overstuffed genre full of similar stuff. We’ve heard the wind tunnel roars many, many times before. While MALTHUSIAN’s brutality can’t be denied by any living thing, some of the tracks here could use some editing. There’s a 15 minute plus track called “Amongst The Swarms of Vermin” that is gonna cause real fatigue, although I will admit the climax is the best part of the song...a real steamroller! We also get three somber dissonant instrumentals when one would have worked...the last one “In Chaos, Exult” could have been left off at no loss to anyone. I know the band is trying to create oppressive mood and they succeed to an extent, but it just wasn’t necessary to do these.
Cuts like the title track and “Red, Waiting” should satisfy any fan of noisy, chaotic death metal. But MALTHUSIAN kind of live up to their name, because they are definitely living in an overcrowded world..
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