Pissgrave – Malignant Worthlessness (Review)

This is the third album from US death metallers Pissgrave.

Malignant Worthlessness contains 31 minutes of foul death metal extremity. It’s intense and brutal, but not delivered without skill. For all the rampant aggression and disgusting brutality on display, Pissgrave also know how to write a death metal song that hits the spot.

This is death metal that’s furious and malign. It has a bestial black/death/war metal heart that’s raw and harsh, but is also gripped by a festering grindcore fever that runs hot through its decaying innards. It’s potent stuff. Basically, Pissgrave are revoltingly infectious throughout Malignant Worthlessness. It’s striking with its abrasive edge and forceful nastiness, but beneath this ticks a death metal machine that’s finely tuned for slaughter.

The riffs are whirlwinds of malignant horror. They ceaselessly batter and attack, with a relentless ferocity that obliterates all defences. This is combined with the sort of vocals that I haven’t heard in years – utterly merciless, utterly inhuman utterances that will strip the flesh from your frame without a care in the world. Add to this drums that punish, the occasional screaming solo, and songs that basically exist to murder the world, and you have an album that’s as destructive as it is effective.

The interesting thing about Malignant Worthlessness, and one of the reasons it is as good as it is, is how the songwriting balances accessibility and extremity. Yes, obviously, this isn’t what you’d call accessible music in a wider sense, but if you’re acclimatised to extreme metal, then there is a clear method to Pissgrave’s brutality. There are defined riffs, structures, and hooks. There are catchy, memorable moments in buckets, and the unhinged vocals have rhythms and patterns that stick. In other words, Pissgrave write actual songs, they then just cover them in filth and entrails.

Malignant Worthlessness has impressed. Pissgrave have unleashed a monster that’s ravenously hungry and lethally vile. If you have a taste for death metal extremity, then this is top tier material.