An eyeless, shrieking abomination mutated several generations beyond a long forgotten contamination event now wrestles away from the captivity of its own torturous, everliving wretchedness as Helsinki, Finland-based death metal quartet MALFORMED present a soundtrack to the sloughing of flesh and howling rip of transcendental gore on this pro-level debut full-length album. Aiming for total extinction ‘Confinement of Flesh‘ rips itself apart sinew-from-bone in portraying a realm cursed with despairing minds and decayed senses which generally avoids the too-typical tropes of ‘new old school’ death metal slop via prime guitar work and a respectable stack of riffs throughout. Though they’ve not yet outpaced the estranged furor of classics with this record the standard achieved here is choice and should readily appeal to pure death metal skulls attuned to mid-90’s European and North American death metal.

Malformed, uh, formed back in 2022 by way of folks associated with pandemic era death and thrash metal crews Connected, Exigenced and the somewhat better known Azatoth where they’d built some general capability. The demo tape (‘Uncontrollable Malformity‘, 2022) they’d released that same year was somewhat non-specific in its approach though it’d featured some decent semi-melodic leads and a very strong bass guitar presence. Their work had tightened up in terms of pacing and riffcraft on a follow-up EP (‘The Gathering of Souls‘, 2023) not long after and there I’d say the potential of their work was more clearly stated as substantive underground death metal per a rotten sound and much improved rhythm guitar work. It wasn’t exactly ‘Blasphemy Made Flesh‘ or Adramelech for that matter but there was a sort of frantic mid-90’s sprawl to that recording which I’d appreciated in short review. I don’t know how important that context is in hindsight as those formative recordings generally communicated ‘old school’ death metal inspired intent and a strong bass guitar hand but I wouldn’t say the demo or EP signaled all that clearly the impending compositional leap that ‘Confinement of Flesh‘ now presents.

Described as a fusion of classic United States death metal severity alongside the gloom of early Finndeath Malformed don’t necessarily read as a recreation of ‘Shadows of the Past‘ as that description might suggest though opener “Within the Flesh” and its opening leads might briefly hint at the Atheist-inspired rushes found in the first half of ‘North From Here‘. The lead guitarists here bring some sense of Scandinavian heavy rock inspired early 90’s death metal muse on the first half of the LP and the riff that hits around ~1:36 minutes in (plus the solo that follows) should speak directly to those sensibilities. The opener doesn’t fully reveal the kinda militant ‘Tomb of the Mutilated‘ spank of the record which we find as we push through “Confinement of Terror” and beyond but you’ve got the general idea of USDM-meets-Scandinavian death-gloom presented herein, all of it kicked at high energy with plenty enough riffs and lead firing off. The first impression is intense, serious death metal designed to crush out riffs that crawl and slither through the senses and (eventually) worm into mind.

Rather than bang out the same type of riff fifty times across nine songs Malformed start to develop more of their ouevre immediately with standout “Abnormal Eulogy”, a mid-paced piece which gives some breathing room for the bass guitar to present more than a spike or pop around the edges of the riff. The loop-ready bap of nowadays death metal kinda creeps into some of these movements but never in a sluggish manner, though the swagger is there it usually acts as a precipice to dive from as we find ~2:31 minutes into the song, a progression which escalates in speed and culls some repetition with each riff change. Rather than recreate the frantic choke-points of classic death-thrash progressions this more deliberate alignment comes across moreso in the vein of ’93-’94 death metal guitar work where a blunt but technical edge and studied interplay between two guitarists was part of the arms race of the time (re: ‘Solstice of Oppression‘). Though these are relatively short and impatient songs in direct comparison with the auld underground I’d still felt songs like “Depredate the Divine” speak to an often under-appreciated era of raw sophistication of pure death metal.

The only bummer here for my own taste is that Malformed have more-or-less left behind any sense for creeped and obscure atmosphere beyond “Abnormal Eulogy” as they go on hoarking meat-and-potatoes chunks throughout the bulk of the second half of ‘Confinement of Flesh‘. While I appreciate their blood spraying chainsaw’d whip through ’til the end closer “The Incoming Rapture” almost stands out too much after four ~shorter rippers mill past. At just ~33 minutes it feels like they had one more pensive, or, slightly more patient cut in ’em but either way though I’d found that final song did well to seal off the experience. If the whole of the experience wasn’t all up to a well above-average standard, sharply presented, and cutting in every statement it’d feel lesser-than but I found myself goaded back to the start from the first listen.

The overall quality of experience presented by ‘Confinement of Flesh‘ was undeniable on my part and not only for the sake of strong curation (cover art via thee Skaðvaldur) and steel-girded production values but the bullheaded impact of its higher-standard guitar work clicked with me as a fan who still readily recalls the non-remastered riff obsessed history of 90’s death metal. So, nostalgic sensibilities admittedly carry some appeal here but moreso for an older, better standard upheld in their work. Malformed could go further with it and do more with this sound, they’ve clearly got the compositional hand(s) in the right geared-up state, but as a debut LP this one does well to introduce a band in rare form and with the right idea. A high recommendation.

---