She Is Malignant

Silent Scream EP

Written by: PP on 13/08/2009 18:15:58

Time for another plunge into the Danish underground metal scene - or should I say screamo to not offend any metalheads? Remember when I was hyping up Knife Of Liberty's previous release "Shadow Chasers EP" for being one of this country's hopefuls at cracking the screamo scene internationally (sure, we have Trusted Few, but that's only one band)? Well, they broke up because of internal differences, or rather, they split with vocalist Dan, hired a new screamer in the form of Artem Kushnirenko (yes, he comments on Rockfreaks.net with his own name in case you were wondering), changed name to She Is Malignant and started working on some new songs, the first three of which are now presented to us in "Silent Scream" EP. I'm glad they did, even if I did like the old stuff as well.

Like I mentioned in my live review of their debut performance, some of their songs are staggeringly good, though especially the Norma Jean inspired "We Build Redemption Through Desire". The layered guitar melodies enter and exit at just the right timings to provide a great contrast to the merciless screaming, which by the way deserves an extra mention here: I don't know how Artem does it, but the way he delivers his scream is akin to massive waves relentlessly pounding the shore, each line constantly returning with equal intensity, showcasing lots and lots of attitude and belief in the ability of his own vocal chords. That's also one of the biggest differences between Knife Of Liberty and She Is Malignant, the latter has just that much more confidence in their sound. A song like "On Top Of Everything" clearly recalls the newest As I Lay Dying record instrumentally, but the way the song is executed with immeasurable tightness and aggressive vocal work makes the 'clone' label completely unnecessary here.

When it comes to screamo, I've nearly stopped listening to the genre altogether because all these new bands coming out of it (ahem, Asking Alexandria, Blessthefall, etc) are simply rehashing a rehash of a rehash of a style. In other words, it sounds like the same sound is being copied for the millionth time without anything new being added. Granted, She Is Malignant doesn't bring anything original or new to the equation, but in my opinion they belong to one of the few bands in the genre that still stands a chance of actually grabbing the listener instrumentally instead of just through their image (they don't even have an image really. I like). They might still be years away from the quality of their inspirations As I Lay Dying and Norma Jean, but when they're already writing songs like "On Top Of Everything" as their first demonstration of ability, I think it's fair for us to have fairly huge expectations for their debut album. Now stay together guys, please.

Download: We Build Redemption Through Desire
For the fans of: As I Lay Dying, Norma Jean, Knife Of Liberty
Listen: Myspace

Release date June 2009
UNSIGNED BAND

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