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Mid-paced black metal in the vein of Tulus is what this young Norwegian act brings to the fore with “They Never Die”, which incidentally is their debut album. They don´t play full throttle metal, taking as reference dark bands who concentrate on mid tempos without losing trace on faster passages. I mentioned Tulus as the inspirational band of these guys, while in the label´s promotional leaflet the name of Khold is quoted; I preferred the first one since I think Khold is just a weak version of Tulus, a bastard child unable to reach significant levels of spell. If you don´t know Tulus, wake up and take a listen to some of their stuff before it´s too late. To make you an impression, their vision of black metal is based on simplicity, devotion by mid tempos and cold parts, some speed lines, overall simple structures and clean sound. Not to forget some loose keyboards. Well, Malsain mostly follow this path with certainly not impressive results. Worth to mention is the fact they don´t imitate in a blatant way the famous acts as Marduk, Immortal, etc. Another thing which blends the eye is the singer; the verses are sung by a girl, hard to believe but it seems to be true! Vocals are rather good and grim and no one could reckon a female behind those verses. Despite the first real song, “The Marsh”, seems to suggest an interesting piece of music conformed by this whole album, the rest of tracks can´t match that intensity and are just a bunch of correct tunes which just fill space on the disc and are far from surmounting the “average” level. They´re mostly dead easy riffs and patterns without any trace of magic and they aren´t “claustrophobic metal” whatsoever as the very band claims to be. Entertaining I´d say, and nothing more.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Troubled Waters |
| 2. The Marsh |
| 3. They Never Die |
| 4. Cold Strofobia |
| 5. Kvele Seg |
| 6. Brent Tre |
| 7. Lokkemann (Demo) |
: 29.34
| Buy other Malsain albums |
