This is the second album by Irish blackened death metallers Malthusian.
2018’s Across Deaths was a nightmarish, venomous first record from Malthusian, ably showcasing their hideous blackened death metal style. In 2022 we were gifted with Time’s Withering Shadow, their split with Suffering Hour, which was another impressive outing, for both bands concerned. Which brings us to the 54-minute The Summoning Bell. Have Malthusian continued their ascent from the bowels of the underworld?
They have, and they have brought the denizens of Hell with them. This is a new chapter in the Malthusian experience. The band have taken the strengths of what came before and reinforced them with weapons-grade songwriting.
The Summoning Bell boasts Malthusian’s most professional and well-developed material yet. On each new release Malthusian improve their malevolent cocktail, refining the ingredients, presentation, and taste, all according to their own infernal designs. The Summoning Bell is their most accomplished creation yet; a harrowing journey into darkness, one that’s beset on all sides by threat and danger.
It’s a sign of how strong The Summoning Bell is that it opens with a three-minute intro track that I’m going to praise, rather than complain about. It’s an eerie, unsettling piece that sets the atmospheric focus of the album well, before the first song proper – Red, Waiting – explodes into existence with the force of a natural disaster. As a sign of things to come, it’s a portent most foul, but most agreeable regardless.
Malthusian sound immense. The drums sound organic and earthy, and really satisfying. The guitars are somehow clear, yet covered in diseased filth. The absolutely murderous main growls are extremely moreish, and I could listen to them all day. Basically, this is the best Malthusian have ever sounded, and it makes absorbing the blows dealt by this hard-hitting record all the more painfully pleasurable.
The songs are an avalanche of grim death metal chaos, driven by people that know their killing art well. Black, doom, and war metal elements are hungrily devoured, adding their DNA to the sonic horror that spreads out across these songs like a virulent plague. The music is brutal, harsh, and unforgiving, but doesn’t neglect actual songwriting; Malthusian know how to craft songs that hit hard, but leave a lasting impact.
On the surface of it the music hides its depth and substance under ferocious aggression and merciless attitude, but there’s more to Malthusian than simple brutality. They build and sustain terrifying atmospheres across the record, with skilled attention to mood and feeling. The Summoning Bell is a collection of interrelated soundscapes, each a horrifying new aspect of the whole, vomited forth for the listener to explore, if they can survive the initial assault. There is a flow and direction to the album. Obvious thought and consideration has gone into the holistic musical package, from structure to dynamics to mood, etc., and it shows.
As well as the suffocating atmosphere and the punishing barbaric attack, there’s also a wide selection of crushing riffs, squealing solos, tortured melodies, percussive mayhem, colossal doom heaviness, and much more. It’s all wrapped up in a spiked, hate-fuelled exterior that screams STAY AWAY with a serrated tongue, but if you can brave Malthusian’s sharpened bite, there’s an abundance of quality otherworldly experiences to become consumed by here.
The Summoning Bell is better than I’d hoped it would be. This album is much-anticipated in certain extreme metal circles, and I don’t think anyone with a taste for this kind of nastiness will be disappointed by it. It’s an abyssal slab of dark brutality that manages to balance abrasive intensity and swirling atmospheric heaviness effortlessly.
Essential listening for anyone that likes the idea of bands such as Abyssal, Incantation, Morbid Angel, and Teitanblood, all put into a blender, with secret Malthusian-specific special ingredients thrown in. The end result might be a lethal concoction, but it’s one worth swallowing whole.
Wonderbox Metal 