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Malignant Tumour > Earthshaker > Reviews
Malignant Tumour - Earthshaker

Czech Motörhead Mania - 81%

psychoticnicholai, January 21st, 2017

Malignant Tumour go full in with Earthshaker, an album that channels Motörhead and crust punk into a rough-hewn form of old school metal worship. Despite me labeling this "worship", it's done very well and has its own snide charm, hard-hitting punk rock barrages, and gruff gang shouts that Malignant Tumour are known for. If you thought that Motörhead needed to be heavier and faster, you've come to the right place.

There are plenty of songs on here that stand out and feel distinct, warranting a few replays. When Earthshaker begins with "Superhuman Comeback" which has the greatest build I've heard in a while, really gearing you up for the ultra-fast assault that ensues. Thrash with growled gang shouts and the energy of a speeding bus with the brakes cut are what you're in for when you put this on. There are two groovier songs, those being "Earthshaker" and "Eternally Alone" but these also have plenty of weight to throw around thanks to chunky riffing and strong thrash roots. The whole album benefits from a strong death metal undertone that permeates every song. The low, growled shouts, riffs, and beats that run faster than a heartbeat on crack give Earthshaker the extra kick it needs to really rip and tear. It's a beefy, speed-fueled tribute to Motörhead and old-school thrash that has plenty of punchy pieces that stand on their own.

Earthshaker is the kind of album that you put on just to blast hard, and rock out to. It's an album that will satisfy retro speed junkies well with a modern crunch and death metal intensity that really overcharges the music. This is no revolution in metal, but it's enough to get one's blood boiling and add a few new songs to your memory. I liked it.

Super Human Comeback!!! - 100%

dmal, September 14th, 2012

This is the best album from any Czech band in history. Before anyone gets angry, I'll mention that the band is not exactly Czech; more on that later.

Last year, at a medium-sized free festival, in the Czech Republic, amidst a large lineup of pop-rock, rap, techno, classic rock, and modern hard-rock pop music, something happened. After a brief warm-up the band stormed out looking like real-metal dudes albeit in some disguises. The tore a hole in the audience belting out music that sounds like a cross between modern Motorhead, and Sodom.

This is exactly the kind of heavy metal that is my favorite.
Maybe you don't like Motorhead or Venom or Torr?
Well, I don't know when Malignant Tumor changed their sound, but I have the split CD with Squash Bowels, and they sounded like Nunslaughter; yes, a bit grindy-cory. But Earthshaker is a different animal.

First of all, on Earthshaker you can understand the vocalist's lyrics.
Second of all, the songs have the blues-rock structure, like Motorhead, Venom, Sodom, and most thrash-bands use. So, the songs are structured around vocal vamping, break out melodies, and rhythm-changes. This is opposed to how they did it on the Squash Bowels split CD, where they mostly used the grind-core structure, which is of course structured around the riffs and making the riffs rip the sonic structure. But MT does this on Earth Shaker as well.

Another great thing about Earthshaker is the vocalist's tone, alliteration, and diction. The band is from the region around the city of Ostrava. They are very different than the czechs, really.

Here's the cultural geography lesson: You remember how there was a country called Czechoslovakia back during the Soviet Socialist Era of Unpleasantness? Well, the Slovak part broke off because those lands had a different language and culture, altogether. Today, within the Czech Republic, there are 3 separate cultural region and dialects: Czech (Bohemia), Moravia, and Silesia. So Malignant Tumor are from Silesia, and the dialect sounds like they are breaking bits of granite rocks between their teeth when the speak. The language is guttural and its sounds like utter gravel, though the lyrics on this release are in (clear-enough) English.

So, you get full speed thrash, catchy rock-n-roll, hellraiser lyrics about truck driving, warfare, sex, and death, with grainy vocals that sound like plate tectonics shifting, but with clear diction.

There is a great qualty video for the title-track where street construction in Ostrava causes giant humans (the band) to emerge from the buried strata, march on and conquer Prague, have a giant-sized concert on Wenceslas Square, and then defecate on the A.C. Sparta Football Club Stadium. Perhaps Ostrava Football Club is buddy-buddy with Sparta, right?

For fans of Motorhead, Venom, Sodom, and Torr.