Malefic Throne - The Conquering Darkness
What an absolute mindfuck it must be to be a member of Morbid Angel these days. The band has a legendary trio of early albums and the stint with its second, more respectable frontman has been fragmented and beset by problems (both external and internal) from just about every angle, to say the very least. Here’s a band with one remaining original member who insists on writing everything him but appears to have gone completely down the deep end. Instead of writing new music Trey Azagthoth appears to increasingly having lost to the demon of the drink. The well of creativity, always modest even in their brightest days, has clearly evaporated. Likewise has Pedro “Pete” Sandoval (its most identifiable drummer) become severely religiously impaired in his advanced age and is now nothing but an autistic old coot. Releases have been sporadic, plans always appear provisional, touring ceased in 2023. For all intents and purposes, Morbid Angel is a distant memory of the past. “Kingdoms Disdained” might not be the gravestone we wanted but it’s the one we got. Steve Tucker understood this better than anyone else, cut his losses, and moved on. To the victor, the spoils. Why bother with a considered dead godform rather than forge a new one?
Steve Tucker has a history of doing interesting studio project whenever Morbid Angel is experiencing another hiatus (which is all too frequent these days, if we’re being the least bit honest). For all its robustness, matter-of-fact barbarity, and colorless compositions “Kingdoms Disdained” hasn’t aged the way their other albums have. No new music has emerged in the near-decade since, so naturally that Tucker would seek an outlet for his everflowing creativity. The seeds of Malefic Throne were sown in the hallowed halls of Morrisound Studio in 1997 where Angelcorpse was recording “Exterminate” and Morbid Angel was cutting “Formulas Fatal to the Flesh”. Whereas Warfather took long to start, climaxed early, and fizzled out shortly thereafter and Arise From Worms appeared as a one-off Malefic Throne has some longevity in the post-pandemic panorama. “The Conquering Darkness” is the Tampa, Florida trio’s first full length release and from the sound of it they have no intention of going anywhere.
Malefic Throne was one of those studio projects formed in during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and reunited 2/3rd of classic Angelcorpse with the righteous voice of Morbid Angel. In short order Gene Palubicki (guitars), John Longstreth (drums), and Tucker (vocals, bass guitar) released the “Malefic Throne” EP in 2022 to whet the appetites of the hordes. Palubicki (and Longstreth) is a prominent player within the Florida underground metal scene and his considerable resumé is both substantial and historically important. As you’d expect “The Conquering Darkness” doesn’t deviate from his established style and sounds very close to the vintage Angelcorpse template we all know and love or that of short-lived adjacent groups as Apocalypse Command and Blasphemic Cruelty. While Perdition Temple is perhaps the true heir to the Angelcorpse legacy, and the sole surviving unit, Palubicki’s razor wire riffing and songcraft hasn’t dulled with age or his prolific body of work across a multitude of projects.
'Blasphémait Desecration' is as much a philosophical vessel as it is a declaration of intent. ‘The Voice Of My Ghost’ is representative for the album and excellent as such. With average song lengths in the 4-6 minute range each respective member of Malefic Throne gets the chance to flex his compositional muscle, and the music is obviously well-rounded for it. The self-titled 2022 EP was concise and brief for exactly the purpose of an introduction and an album is the place to further expand and explore the established formula with longer songs. To its credit none of these songs are longer than they need to be. The deeper half of the record is slightly more thrashier than the first. Whereas the current "Chronicles of the Doomed Worlds" duology (from 2015 and 2020, respectively) from French duo Abyssal Ascendant are wholly imbued in classic Morbid Angel conventions here it only surfaces on closer ‘Forged In Stone’. It slows down to a trudging, dirgey midpace that Tucker supposedly is more comfortable with. Strangely, this is the best Morbid Angel song not written by Morbid Angel.
The Warfather’s performance is as solid as you’d expect of him, although he seems unable to recreate the ominous monstrous delivery of “Formulas Fatal to the Flesh” and “Gateways to Annihilation”. Fiery and shredding leads and solos abound with Palubicki going for the jugular at every possible turn. Longstreth retains the old Angelcorpse style and reins in his (now signature) gravity blasting and seemingly torrential barrage of double bass artillery to an absolute minimum. When he does, the effect is that much more devastating. This is Malefic Throne after all, and not Origin or Unmerciful. The production from Colin Marston possesses enough old school grit and natural warmth combined with modern day clarity and pristine clinical cleanliness. The monochrome art from Daniel Valeriani (most known around these parts for his digital art for Dark Funeral’s orange trilogy with Masse Broberg) is good for what it is but it’s a bit strange Malefic Throne didn’t stick with Jenglot Hitam for this. Regardless, “The Conquering Darkness” does exactly what it promises and makes no compromises.
