Malfeitor – Unio Mystica Maxima
Scarlet Records – SC 143-2 – 11 September 2007
by John Norby
Oh yes! This is a chillingly ritualistic example of ‘sonic black magik’ at is bleakest and most harrowing.
Malfeitor, however, don’t really offer anything completely new or innovative to the genre; they just seem to be one of those bands that you listen to and immediately
get, even on repeated listens. As the sounds of chilling opener
’Adveniat Infernus’ pollute the air, there’s a sense that we’re about to embark on a horrific journey; a sense that’s fully realised right from the opening seconds of
’Rex Bestiafera’ and continues for the duration of the album.
Everything on
Unio Mystica Maximais straightforward-enough, traditional black metal – and therein lies its genius. These Italians know when to blast for sheer ferocity, when to hit the midpaces for evil ‘grooves’ (if such a thing exists), and when to slow to a dreaded crawl (albeit only on a couple of occasions) to invoke terror into the hearts of their listeners. M. Fabban’s (Aborym) vile voice provides ideal rasps for the form of raw, terrorizing black metal that
Malfeitor have chosen to spew forth. There are also some genuinely creepy chant-like passages interspersed throughout
Unio Mystica Maxima that offer a certain blackened ambience to the proceedings.
Production on
Unio Mystica Maxima is typical of the majority of bands within this area of the genre and in that sense it can rightly be deemed as perfect for this recording. As said before, there’s nothing new brought to the table here, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is blacker than black, erm, black metal. Gotta love the choice of
Mysticum track for the closer, too: now, where do we find these
’Black Magic Mushrooms’.
Official Malfeitor Website
Official Malfeitor Myspace
Official Scarlet Records Website
