The Northern countries of Europe became a boiling cauldron for Black Metal in the first half of the 90's. Norway, Sweden and Finland saw the rise of the genre from the underground as an invasion. Sweden revealed many great names that are still active today, as MARDUK and DARK FUNERAL, the known throughout the world; other names as SETHERIAL, LORD BELIAL and NAGLFAR became cult bands. But some good names from those days never gained became as known as they deserve, and MALIGN is one of them, as this new release of their "Demo 1/95" shows.

The duet walks the same steps of the bands of classical Black Metal Swedish School, the same one created by BATHORY on its three early albums. All is brutal and atmospheric, crude to the point of hurting the ears of those who aren't into what Black Metal is about. And besides the band prefers a simple technical outfit, they show very good musical arrangements. It's nothing that wasn't done before, but it truly good, aggressive and obscure. It's a Demo Tape (or Demo CD, what was already usual on those days), so the listeners must understand that the sound quality isn't clean and defined. And thinking that it was released back on 1995, the aesthetics that ruled supreme was that one with nasty instrumental tunes and with a crude sonority. But the band did something that can be understood for dummies, even not being what their songs deserve.

"Blod Skall Flöda" is aggressive and sharp, but show good rhythmic changes (so bass guitar and drums work in a good way), as it can be heard on "Extirpation of the Feeble" (but on this one, the shrieked voices are very good). On the "The Wanderer", the tempos are contrasting between fast parts with slow moments (so the guitar riffs are very good, catchy and aggressive), and "Covenant of Black Souls" shows a very good crude and morbid ambiance, filled with nasty guitar riffs. The other four songs are different versions from these ones, with a sound quality that seems like a two-track recorder during a rehearsal.

MALIGN is active, and released some works, but an album wouldn't be a bad idea. Until them, "Demo 1/95" is a good option for the fans.