Steely in stature yet ablaze in motion San Francisco, California-based death-thrashing heavy metal quintet MOLTEN return to their crusade with a biggest yet, heavier-than-thou, even more nuanced and psychotically charged sophomore full-length album. Balancing the weighty mania of Bay Area classic-thrashing death metal, the pensive dredging of progressive metal, and the charge of traditional heavy metal in hand ‘Malicide‘ is first and foremost an energetic blitz of a record which leads with high-brained finesse in tandem with a maniac lashed-out fervor. Dunking several skulls worth of brains into this stew so that it all makes sense, these fellowes thrive within harried energy and eclectic vision but win the metal brain over within the meticulously sorted details of their craft.

Molten formed circa 2017 finding a common thread with shared broad taste in various forms of traditional and extreme metal, all of which have the potential to read canonical in combination, and in a certain Bay Area metal continuity. A couple of years later they’d self-released a representative yet tentative 12″ mLP (‘Molten‘, 2019) and received some reasonable notice for not quite fitting into the usual death-thrash metal sound, rooting the skeleton of their sound in traditional heavy metal movement (think of Metal Church, Iron Maiden, etc. of a certain era) yet producing a thrashing form which seemed to idolize the late 80’s transition to death metal’s underground peak. When I’d reviewed their debut full-length album (‘Dystopian Syndrome‘, 2021) a few years later the simplest comparison was maybe something like Insanity, something ‘Seven Churches‘ adjacent in time but rooted in some bits of neoclassical guitar music and early 80’s heavy metal outliers. As we delve into ‘Malicide‘ we’ll find all of those traits have survived, honing the abruptness of their attack as well as the thinkin’ man’s aspect of their craft ’til they’ve hit the right dosage for their speedball.

With the glinting of acoustic guitar in eye and a roar readied in throat “Festering Anamnesis” gives us a sizable death metallic push through the gates, already getting whiplash per the kinetic strikes of their flow and thunder per heightened production values emphasizing the rhythm section and wrathful death metal growls leading the otherwise plodding charge of the opener. The first thing I’d taken note of in seeking the character of this album in essence beyond vocalist Brandon Bristol‘s rasp was the prominent bass guitar tone that quickly flexes into view, growing even more deft in its touch with each passing song. Bassist Herman Bandala (ex-Hell Fire) can be found immediately supporting and adding vital flourish to the main attack from the start of the album thanks to a prominent render and well-rounded tone which leaves the grime of the act to the two guitarists while still managing plenty of percussive and nigh progressive level performances throughout. Drums likewise fill the space without blowing out the hall, allowing the graceful clinking of the acoustic guitars laced through the opening and the refrain of the song (“Festering Anamnesis”) to provide a skeletal structure and sophistication befitting of the band’s personae, a surreal yet combative mélange of traits. Molten haven’t just shown up to do their thing but rather they’ve cut right to the bone with a more severe pace and wrathful personae from the start.

By the time “Malice” spiked in it’d felt like these fellowes’d barely taken a breath still hitting a “death metal Metal Church” dance to some degree within the ride of their forward charging rhythms and rumbling basslines helping to kick things along. The stride-in with its solo and the mean riff that develop then and there hint at the traditional, or, neoclassical touch to Molten‘s lead interest which they’ve threaded throughout ‘Malicide‘ lending a bit of extra stature to their otherwise ripping cut through each piece. Those first two pieces feel fundamentally linked in their atmospheric haunt and the dark, bloody crypt they’re growled from and as they rip through two sub-two minute burner songs focused on a quick slab of riffs it almost feels like they’re already running out of big arena-sized thrash energy; “Pathogenesis” riffs cut hard out the gates, jogging along while minding the escalation of the core guitar progression, sounding a bit like a late 80’s German death/thrash metal group filling the cracks with Slayer riffs. It basically functions as an interlude before “Scorched” hits with another couple minutes of build-and-burn. The quick passage between these two pieces managed to be exciting enough at that point but not as substantive as what’s to come with Side B.

From my point of view Side B is the main event beyond the surge of energy that opens ‘Malicide‘, the complete parity of experience in focus, and the bulk of the substantive action once we dig through these ~35 minutes and make sense of the full experience it offers. — “Prophets of Greed” is a solid galloping death metal lead thrasher, flexing its mid-paced double-bass socked push and thundering through its main progression with the sort of aggressive attitude Molten have brought to each of their releases thus far, a barking dementia and haunting cut which still knows how to get a pit going. In my notes I think the first thing I’d written about this song in my notes was something like “Brocas Helm bass meets Paul Speckmann‘s Abomination” and this more-or-less communicates the thrust of it, some of the late 80’s death metal grilling being done. This is the appetizer, the run-up before the big boss fight, and some mild foreshadowing for the peak of the album as I see it.

What they’ve explored on the brilliant ~10 minute “Empires of Divinity”, -the- clear standout not only for the sake of its extended ride but for all of the serious riffs they bring on the hike up, finally hitting that fever pitched clip beyond the opener which we knew they could pull off. Recalling the long-winded strides of albums like ‘Victims of Deception‘ in its gait, accessing the neoclassical influenced shred side of the band in the last third of the song and resembling heavy metal inspired ride of early 2000’s The Chasm as the full song plays out in ‘epic’ fashion. This is the clincher, the convincer and a bigger version of the revelation similarly offered on Molten‘s debut. Once we’ve gotten to this point in the full listen and hit that big piece which brings it all together under one cut it becomes most clear that these folks are up to something which has legs, a riff-driven hit of high energy death-thrashing heavy metal (see the fiery ride-out of “Life of War”) which is largely unheard-of… or rarely this good these days.

Though I don’t have any harsh criticism for the actual contents of their work here I’d found the pairing of “Pathogenesis” and “Scorched” less of a momentum built rocket and more of a tentative couple of steps toward what’d typically be the big closing momentum leading out of Side A. With that feature spot filled by two quick rippers it kinda messes with the flow of the full listen to start. Granted, it’d hardly bothered me by the tenth or so listen as I’d been anticipating the density of ideas found on the second half. Some of the same criticisms of their debut apply here in terms of creating energetic havoc and the result is not without brilliant structure but largely avoids anything too catchy or obvious in its statement. A simpler heavy rock-built piece or two might help the greater experience leave its dent in my brains a bit longer; What’d push this experience up and into the best of the month territory here comes with Molten‘s choice of aesthetic curation with a scene of macabre mutilation by way of Noah Cutter Meihoff who brings a distinct golden-red and steel glowing scene of torturous comeuppance to the crusader depicted up front and the daemonic innards of the gatefold otherwise. A truly eye-mangling vision where they’ve smartly brought the artist’s work into the full aesthetic (title logo, lyric sheet frame, etc.) for a remarkably cohesive layout which directly elevates the ‘Malicide‘ experience. A high recommendation.

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