CENTINEX — Malleus Maleficarum (review)

CENTINEX — Malleus Maleficarum album cover Album · 1996 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Malleus Maleficarum" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Centinex. The album was released through Wild Rags Records in April 1996. It´s the successor to "Subconscious Lobotomy" from 1992, although the two full-length releases are bridged by the 1993 "Under the Blackened Sky" demo and the 1994 "Transcend the Dark Chaos" EP.

Stylistically the material on "Malleus Maleficarum" continue the old school death metal style of "Subconscious Lobotomy (1992)", and while it´s maybe a little more consistent in style and not quite as eclectic as the debut album, there are more similarities than differences between the two albums. I can´t hear much development of sound and the sound production is also as raw, simple, and savage as on the debut. The songwriting and the performances are also in the less interesting end of the scale, and there is at times a tendency that the whole thing sounds a little amaturish. The drumming is a bit untight and lacks creativity (half of the tracks feature drum programming, but somehow those tracks also sound a bit untight) and the sound production is not well balanced. Centinex aren´t the most Swedish sounding death metal act, but on closing track "Cranial Dismemberment" they do deliver a couple of riffs which sound like they are right out of the Dismember playbook (with the song title in mind, that´s probably intentional).

Although the material are fairly consistent in quality and style, the tracks are actually culled from three different recording sessions. Tracks 1-3 were recorded in 1995, tracks 4-7 were recorded in 1994 and are culled directly from the 1994 "Transcend the Dark Chaos" EP, and track 8 was recorded in 1993.

"Malleus Maleficarum" is upon conclusion not a particularly great release but it´s not a bad quality release either (although some elements may sounds amaturish, they aren´t as such bad sounding), but I´m not surprised it took the band four years, a demo, and an EP, before they found a label to release "Malleus Maleficarum" (and the notorious Wild Rags Records no less). A standard quality death metal album like this released in the death metal hostile year of 1996 probably had a hard time finding an audience. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.
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