Formed in 2012, Malthusian took the underground metal universe by storm with their first offering (MMXIII demo). Two years after that debut EP, the Irish beasts return with a second EP. Zero Tolerance could not stand idle as the world is about to crumble under the weight of these new songs.
“We think the new songs sound better than those on the (MMXIII) demo without betraying the sound we established on that recording” guitarist/vocalist AC begins to discuss how the new songs compare to the old and how they shape the profile and identity of Malthusian. “The production is bigger and more involved and the songs are in a way a continuation of what we were developing on the previous release, but taken further. We spent a lot of time honing each part, making sure that there was a sense of movement, the feeling of a journey through each song”. Those exposed to Malthusian’s force can probably understand where AC is coming from here. Malthusian are mesmerising and convey a sense of transition, with each and every second being another step to a gradual descent towards abyssal emptiness.
In contrast to a lot of today’s bands who seek the obscure in the impossible, Malthusian choose to present their chaos through memorable compositions, clever changes and crushing RIFFS. “The riffs are both more chaotic and more memorable this time” AC continues. “It’s important to get that balance right, especially with the amount of bands playing this sort of chaotic black death at the moment. We don’t want to just get swallowed up in a sea of mediocre releases. We bust our balls to write songs that will make people really take notice. Hopefully it will have paid off, but we’ll see. The lyrics are probably a bit more advanced as well but as a lot of the ideas are pretty abstract and my approach to writing is a bit kaleidoscopic and fragmented (and the demo lyrics were never printed!) people won’t really register that”.
Due out through Invictus Productions, Malthusian’s new EP is titled Below The Hengiform and contains three songs: The Gasless Billows; Slouching Equinox; and Forms Become Vapour. “We are still tying up the master and layout of the artwork but we hope to have the CD version out in time for our European tour with Altar of Plagues in March” the guitarist adds.
Given the success of their first EP, the question is: why an EP again? Isn’t that just a first step for bands to be discovered by record labels? “We decided early on to focus on an EP again as we are in no massive rush to write a full length. We wanted to prove that we have plenty of ideas left to play with. We are a young band, we have only been operating a few years and we want to make sure that when we finally write an album that it will be something special. Recording an EP made sense as we wanted to keep up some sort of momentum, even if that is pretty slow in our case”. Should we expect a full-length album at all, then? “Our next step will be to get down to writing for an album and a possible split but don’t expect the album to come any time soon. We will put our heads down and work for as long as it takes to come up with an album’s worth of material that is free of any wasted minutes or filler. There is enough shit music in the world and we really don’t want to add to it!” AC concludes. Amen to that.
