With lungs packed with cemeterial soil and smoke billowing from the mound alight Brisbane, Australia-based death/doom metal band MALIGNANT AURA smolder in divining relief beyond despairing wilt on this much-improved sophomore full-length album. Though their previous work was texturally rich and stoically fuming ‘Where All of Worth Comes to Wither‘ amplifies that thought away from purely repetitious wandering towards extended arcs of violent melodrama via equally intensified channeling toward doom and death alike. Not only does this make for a far more evenly distributed course of action, and a sharper full listen as a result, greater variety brings in some additionally adept features to their performances such as exceptional lead guitar placement and a more broadly wretched-loose vocal array.

In the beginning known constituents from bands Defamer, Malakyte and such crewed up for the sake of a death/doom metal prompt back in 2017 initially carrying the tentative name Cursed By A Hag and a sound more heavily inspired by melodic death/doom metal for a 2017 released demo. Where traditional doom metal met up with the Peaceville three alongside nods to Incantation, Disembowelment and Mournful Congregation their gear would eventually expand to a quintet, solidify in purpose and be reborn as Malignant Aura by 2018. Aiming to hit a certain high standard for ‘old school’ death/doom metal sounds their debut LP (‘Abysmal Misfortune Is Draped Upon Me‘, 2022) represented the sub-genre well in terms of crossing harder-edged movements into what were largely morose streams of discord and melancholia not unlike earlier Convocation via some funeral doom inspiration feeding a few key moments. For a band that no one’d heard of releasing an ~hourlong debut on a label that was only just beginning to become known (which suddenly folded soon after) it was a big ask at a time when attention spans are next to nil… but that first record was more than competent, onto something well above-average and drenched in its own atmospheric burl.

Expectations for ‘Where All of Worth Comes to Wither‘ on my part centered around one of two directions: More death or more doom… and what I actually mean is I wanted more riffs in either direction to help feed their meandering atmospheric drift a harder cut direction beyond the flapping of misery’s flag. The slowly burnt through intro/title track which opens the album only begins to hint that this second album would be more readied and active than the first beyond repetition and “The Pathetic Festival” which follows makes good in terms of riffcraft and ultimately leans more death metal than I’d have expected, a cross between Morbid Angel-esque movements, dissonant ruminations and dreary death/doom which seeps beyond each in alternation. While they are yet the sort of band that requires some patience to dissolve in mind there is yet some clear mark of evolutionary readiness applied to the opening moments of this second album.

From that point we get a different but not entirely alien strand of Malignant Aura this time around, a pummel-readied venture able to dial up something like “Where the Slime Live”-esque energumen (see: “Languishing in the Perpetual Mire”) while also trading away the atmospheric wandering of their debut for deeper shades of forlorn doom. Sustained and lumbering feats ring crookedly set striking at discord in reaching for extreme gloom as each of the three 10+ minute pieces immerse and hammer down in irregular interval. The aforementioned “Languishing in the Perpetual Mire” is probably going to be the clincher for most listeners beyond the opening duo as it illustrated a swamp of downward-pulling grooves and slowly pummeled tension, eventually sealing the moment with I believe a triple (?) guitar solo, harmonized to great effect. This is probably the major peak of the experience outright and generally speaking Side A is an exceptionally strong reintroduction to this band.

The second half of the experience more closely resembles the miserable saunter we’d found on the second half of ‘Abysmal Misfortune is Draped Upon Me‘ but moreso in tone than modus. “Beneath a Crown of Anguish” resembles this most readily as a central thread of melodic lead sews the piece together, their verve mulling and hammering about. The U.K. death/doom inspiration available to this record is potentially more clear in this moment especially in the wind-up to the lead guitars around ~4:41 minutes into the song where harmonized dual leads once again highlights Malignant Aura‘s work. All of these traits feed the band’s efforts to the end though each piece has its own moment which breaks away, such as the closer’s snarling confessional rant and the despairing cataclysm conveyed.

Without question Malignant Aura‘s second album has outdone their first not only in terms of craft, putting together a more cohesive and affected result with much of the same character conveyed, but also in terms of building up interest that’d bring a pure death metal listener into the realm of soul-rending doom and despair. It’d be fair to argue that ‘Where All of Worth Comes to Wither‘ is not just a brutal downer but a more brutal result at once, an album which makes good on the promise of their previous work while also clobbering a more distinct channel. This should have broad appeal to folks who might enjoy the more recent evolution of Innumerable Forms as much as say, Hooded Menace during their ‘Darkness Drips Forth‘ era. A high recommendation.

https://www.memento-mori.es/

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