MALOTA is an Italian Post-metal band with a Spanish name. They hail from Venice, the city with zero cars and more canals than espresso shops. Which kind of blows my mind. No cars, just walking and rowing. Venice is also the proud home to many metal bands. About 70, actually. I hereby decree 'many' to mean approximately 70.  Please take note.

But back to MALOTA. On October 10, 2025, they released their second full-length album, "Scapegoat," via Go Down Records. As we all know, the 'post-metal' label is attributed to bands whose subgenre we can't quite figure out. I mean, it's easier than qualifying with a long list of subgenres and slashes—e.g. Doom/Experimental/Thrash/Stoner—or trying to pin down with 'sounds-like' approximations which to me always seem reductive. It's like saying someone looks like someone else when in fact they just look like themselves. So, we can say that MALOTA is a post-metal band that sound like themselves. I should also say they're pretty damned intriguing. They start here and end there, they twist and they parry and they pivot, defying expectations and mocking songwriting norms. Every track is a new tangent and within those tangents are yet more tangents. It's like trying to draw line with smoke.

Promo material states the album "symbolizes the degradation permeating our world, the anguish born from hatred and fanaticism, and the profound fear of isolation" and that the woman looking at you with utter disdain on the cover "embodies all those who have suffered – and continue to suffer – at the hands of ignorance, cruelty, and a toxic culture shaped by a male-dominated world." Fair enough, I'll buy all that and raise it with . . . production values have an analog edge like the amps were on the other side of room and room was filled with tombstones and bones not because of any acoustic effect but just to look evil and shit. Also, vocals are mostly clean though they get raspy and gritty here and there which, of course, is a plus. Riffs are heavy and thrashy with stoner and doom inflections. Compositions dip and weave as previously noted and the lyrics are largely decipherable, though, to be honest I didn't follow them all of them. Short attention span and all that. I can only guess they aren't love songs, though you never know.

Lots of cool tracks on this one. My favs include "Nermin" for its visceral break at about the three-quarter mark. I mean shit gets wild. Totally badass track. I also really enjoyed " . . . But Deliver Us from Pain" which just goes everywhere, and those places all end up being dark and brooding and they question your choices. And then there's "In a Common Grave" which is a lovely beat down with a unique break that is both unnerving and thrilling. The first movement of "Космонавт Pt 2" gets way trippy, effectively becoming the album's interlude and the second movement continues the strain for a minute or so before morphing into a new entity altogether. Космонавт, by the way, is Russian for 'astronaut.' It's also the title of the band's first full-length and thereby creates a callback loop that a lot of listeners won't be able to resist delving into.

MALOTA's "Scapegoat" is an intriguing album that bears repeating and with each listening it yields a differing and evolving experience. Good stuff, this one. Raw, smart, emotive, and unpredictable.