Malfeitor

Incubus

Agonia Records 2009

On Incubus the blasphemous Italian horde Malfeitor purvey a crisp yet icily malicious style of black metal not unlike old Endstille or Koldbrann.  The album opens with Down With Me which is cold and callous with blasts of freezing black metal winds the occasional Nordic melody.  Mysterious Mystical Majestic brings a clenched fist of powerful riffing that borders on death metal with its rhythmic approach.  Some nocturnal majesty slips into the track through melodic leads and sets the song up as the album's high point.  There is some pretty interesting cymbal work on Promethean Fire as the sticks dance like wildfire upon the metallic surface.  Disharmonic riffs rise up to greet the listener before blast beats explode in unison with layered demonic vocals on Typhonian Gods.  At around the 3:40 mark of the song a sampled trembling voice creeps out like a nocturnal confession against a back drop of atmospheric music.  Slowing the tempo down is Void of Voids which relies on atmosphere and scalpel sharp guitars to slice away all spiritual delusions.  This reprieve is short-lived as the title track immediately rockets forth with fiery resolve and scorching riffs.  I hear some distant echoes of middle era Satyricon in some of these tracks.  The album closer, Antisaturno, is a bizarre ambient industrial track that stabs into your consciousness like long thin spikes.  The production on Incubus is decidedly sterile and cold.  Though well executed I find Incubus to be somewhat uninspiring and the tracks are a bit too long.  The music is solid though unspectacular and Malfeitor does nothing to truly set themselves apart from the legion of black metal bands glutting the scene these days.