Malanoctem
Promo 2009

First effort for the Abruzzesi band Malanoctem, an old PROMO from 2009 and the first absolute incarnation of the band.
I recovered this little disc on YouTube as it is practically unavailable, and I don’t think any copies remain for sale, so I will focus exclusively on the musical aspect, since I don’t actually have the CD in hand and cannot comment on the graphics, format, and packaging.

Let’s start by saying that the Malanoctem are an Abruzzese band active since 2006, but have found lineup stability only in 2008 due to various vicissitudes.
Practically, almost three years were spent, apparently, to establish the formation that led to the birth of this promo of only 2 tracks.
Subsequently, 2 out of 5 members, even the founders, were replaced in 2010, namely the guitarist and bassist.
The Promo 2009 represents a legacy of the old era of the band and tells a millennia-old story if compared to the new EP “Dall'Adriatico all'Aldilà” released at the end of December 2011, which I recently had the fortune to listen to.

There is already a review on DeBaser, but sooner or later I will write mine since my passion for them is continuously increasing, and I would like to pay tribute to their last effort, which I find to be nothing short of excellent.
Returning to Malanoctem, I add that no one would have ever imagined, while listening to this little 7-minute disc, that the stylistic evolution of the band would take off in such an unexpected direction. Indeed, this “double single” with 2 unreleased tracks never reprinted contains 2 classic metal tracks, neither good nor bad.
In truth, something remarkable can be noticed in the grooves of their early immature compositions, a magnificent taste for melodies.
But let's proceed in order.
The CD consists of 2 tracks, namely Respect 2015 and Fire Embrace, and they fully represent an inexperienced and personality-lacking formation. I find them in this guise very derivative and predictable, but in truth, a good growth base to build on is detectable after careful and meticulous listening.

Pressing play on the player starts “Respect 2015,” a very static song but with captivating and very aggressive vocal lines, perhaps the only positive note being the voice that scratches incessantly throughout the track.
Upon careful objective listening, the recording is very simple and minimalistic, constantly reminiscent of the early Swedish productions of the '90s, although thrash metal influences from the old American school can be found (in fact, the Bio explicitly mentions this), as at some points, they remind me of the old Pantera.
All in all, a 4-minute song that is listenable but leaves absolutely nothing to the listener, except a great sense of compositional precariousness.

Subsequently, we move on to “Fire Embrace,” the second piece of PROMO 2009. Here, their strong heavy metal influence and their redundant taste for melodies and guitar interweaving stand out from the first riff, pounding incessantly on the listener and projecting them to early '90s Stockholm.
The voice hiccups in some parts and excels in others, let’s say it’s inconsistent throughout the track, yet Antonio Pasquini (vocals) performs respectable clean vocals towards the end of the song. In the track’s finale, the usual melodies weave excellent tasteful threads and give life to a piece that would have otherwise been as anonymous as “Respect 2015,” an episode distinctly lackluster from start to finish.

Essentially, after careful listening, I can say that the guitars and the voice dominate throughout the entire length (???) of the disc, while the bass and drums are absent, with an elementary and inconsistent rhythmic section.
The old-school recording, however, adds aggressiveness to everything, being raw and very direct, but unfortunately does not greatly elevate a very low compositional margin, even though something good can be found in the catchy taste of the choruses, real earworms that lodge directly under your cerebral cortex after the first listen.

In any case, just 2 pieces are too few to judge such a work, but surely this review will serve those who want to know the origins of a band currently poised to become one of the “future new Italian sensations” of 2012.
Keep an eye on them.