ONSLAUGHT KOMMAND – Malignancy

Malignancy is quite possibly one of the most inhuman and raw-sounding musical documents that I have come all year, and I am perfectly okay with that, thank you very much.

The guitar tone is akin to slime and immediately establishes an atmosphere that can only be described as utterly unpleasant. With its conciseness and no-frills attitude, the fourteen-track effort is all about beating the listener into submission and grinding them down, and the good thing is that it succeeds in doing so, which ties in with it being surprisingly memorable even upon the first listen and sounding aggressively confident all the way through. Musically speaking, there are no surprises here and these chaps are obviously not out to reinvent the wheel, but the Chilean outfit has a sickening charm and a knack for making each riff count that both intrigues and excites me, meaning that I have found great pleasure in listening to this one quite a few times now. It is thoroughly disgusting and comes across as an acidic burp that by some unfortunate miracle manages to choke you, and standouts such as “Backyard of Corpses” and “Pervert Goat Kommand” are as toxic and impressively efficient as they come.

Grind-infused black metal is an apt description for what Onslaught Kommand dabble in, and Malignancy is a solid and delightfully morbid listen that delivers the goods without being outright remarkable.