Dawn of a New Age

Finally a full length debut album by Malignant Tumour. It took mainman Bilos no less then 9 years! M.T. turned into a European group instead of just a Tsjechian combo. Well actually an Tsjechian-Dutch group to be honest and this turned out to be their first solid and successful line-up as they made no less than three releases in a year and did two European tours.

New members Johan and Jelle (drums and bassguitar) brought more crustcore and d-beat to the table. And this did wonders for the M.T. sound. Of course there still was plenty of old school grindcore to be found on this album but the high amount of polka beat laden crusty sing-a-longs is very notable.

Still M.T. borrow heavily from Enslavement-era Napalm Death and especially mid-nineties Agathocles but what sets them apart are the lead vocals. Bilos and Jelle share lead vocals and even drummer Johan chips in. This, together with the tight energetic performance, gives the album so much more dynamics and is one of the elements wich drew M.T. from the pool of grindcore mediocrity.

Are there highlights? Yes of course! First of all we have “Up Your Fucking Arse”. Now, I know this reeks of plagiarism when keeping the Agathocles song “Get Off Your Ass” (Distrust And Abuse EP -1993) in mind but because of the primordial white trash umta beat and Muppet-showish shared vocals this M.T. song actually is better than the Agathocles classic.

And then there was “Katjusia”. I can imagine a lot of younger western boys and girls not knowing this song and it is of course a very famous Russian war song which some of you might remember from the classic movie The Deer Hunter. I have been told that when M.T. played this song live in eastern Europe, the crowd went totally insane! Now can you imagine a western band playing a metalised “long way to tipperary” and turning a venue upside down?

Are there no downsides to this album? Unfortunately there are. First of all we have the slightly tame sound. The guitars could and should have been a lot heavier or filthier and more prominent in the mix. Secondly the trashcan sound of the snare drum tends to draw too much attention. But these are minor complaints. But the biggest complaint is the second half of the album, which, apart from Katjusja obviously, is of lesser compositional quality and the listener does lose some interest while playing it.

Would the production have been a lot more furious and the second half of the album just as good as the first, this would would’ve been the definate Malignant Tumour album. Now it’s just a damn good one.