MALIGNANT AURA – Where All Of Worth Comes To Wither

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8.0

• Bands:
  MALIGNANT AURA
• Duration: 00:45:36
• Available from: 01/26/2026
• Label:

• Memento Mori

Malignant Aura were born in 2017 in Brisbane as a trio: under the name of Cursed By A Hag they made a single demo inspired by the typically Peaceville melodic doom-death metal, before adding two new musicians to the lineup, changing their moniker and, from this point on, introducing a more extreme component into their sound, with references to the more orthodox death metal but also to bands such as Disembowelment or Mournful Congregation.

The debut “Abysmal Misfortune Is Draped Upon Me” from 2022, although not without flaws, was a courageous first step, challenging but full of ideas, with six songs in fifty-four minutes characterized by dense and layered sounds. Four years later, many things have changed, with the abandonment of one of the guitarists and the closure of Bitter Loss Records, the label for which the album was released; the Australians, however, promptly settled back and quickly reached the finish line of the second job.

“Where All Of Worth Comes To Wither”, released for a trio of labels including the Spanish Memento Mori for the European market, is slightly shorter, with five pieces spread over a duration of 'only' three quarters of an hour, and continues in its work of stitching together genres without taking a very specific direction: “The Pathetic Festival”, for example, is pure death metal, a song which, with a few less dissonances, would not be out of place in the discography of Morbid Angel or Incantation, while “Beneath A Crown Of Anguish” remains anchored to the dictates of the previous album, balanced with a death-doom metal that recalls the first Paradise Lost and also the Hooded Menace of about ten years ago. The writing appears rather elaborate: it passes naturally from tight riffing to moments of black anguish, with a sense of resignation that pervades all the pieces and a frightening monolithic expression expressed through various forms; the facets are many more numerous than is apparent on the surface, and become clear only after repeated listening, but the moment in which the different souls of the band find a perfect balance is “Languishing In The Perpetual Mire”, thirteen minutes that exude anger and agony with such an intensity that it represents the pinnacle of the album.

The choice to maintain an old school spirit in all respects while working with current means gives the sound, especially the guitars, a monstrous heaviness, and allows you to plumb all the depths of the sound spectrum that is used. The songs are truly scary, both when they resort to pure violence and when they get lost in dense and threatening atmospheric drifts, supported by a ghostly voice that goes from growl to disturbing whispers, and it is precisely the ability to maintain this attitude without compromise that elevates them above the average of similar releases.

“Where All Of Worth Comes To Wither” is a step forward compared to their already good debut and, although at times one has the impression of a project still in progress and which could evolve along different paths, Malignant Aura demonstrate that they have enough talent and ideas to leave their mark and bring together fans of more square death metal with those who love darker and more funereal sounds.
The now recognizable artwork by Paolo Girardi deserves a final mention.