Malthusian – MMXIII (demo)
The ‘cavernous’ death metal onslaught hasn’t abated, and while a sizable portion of the sub-genre continues to be enjoyable, only those bands willing to color outside the lines will survive the impending event horizon landing the majority of these groups in the graveyard of the forgotten. Enter Malthusian, whose promising demo MMXIII has recently been released by Invictus Productions. The crevasse-dwelling musicians herein have wisely infused their stalagmite-sound with a healthy dose of unsettling Doom, rounding out the demo’s three songs with a terror-inducing lack of light sure to discourage many that believe only reverb knobs are needed to concoct ‘atmosphere’. That being said, gobs of echo are present on this demo as well, but aside from the expected elements of mire that this particular DM sound-spawn evokes, Malthusian conjure up enough riff variety (check the chorded slides, immediately followed by Autopsy nods in ‘Wraith///Plague Spore’) and throat bizarreness (check the crazed vocal emerging halfway through ‘The Mother’s Blade’) to keep their devilish lamentations relatively fresh ; obligatory homages to early Incantation notwithstanding. But like those early NY/PA ungods before them, Malthusian use only guitars, bass, and drums to drag listeners to Hell’s gate, eschewing any other electronic methods of creating a choking fog of sound, and for succeeding in that I commend them. Bring on that beloved dissonance predicated by melancholic Doom, hail the promise and realization of muddy tempo shifts!
An usually strong demo that hints at an ear-splitting evolution to come, MMXIII will please those that envy the dark and dank lifestyle of a death metal Gollum. We only have 24 minutes of torment with this, Malthusian’s debut offering, but there will certainly be more forthcoming, and I will be awaiting its relentless, yet-still-dreary arrival. -Jim
Invictus Productions
Worm Gear 
I would say this is a very well ‘said’ review!