I must have gotten lost in a time warp somewhere. When exactly did Malamor become a "legendary" band? Everywhere I look, all I see is Dead To The World being described as the return of "legendary" New York death metal act Malamor. It’s kind of hard to be a legend when you release one demo tape in 1995, another in 1997, record a full length CD, and then sit on it for 7 years before releasing it. Being inactive for 7 years doesn’t mean a band is legendary; it just means they’re fucking lazy. To be a legend, you actually need to have some sort of influence on other bands and have a long career. Malamor are not legendary. Most people never even heard of Malamorbefore they went on tour with Suffocation last year. So, with that said, let’s move on to the album itself. Since the album was record in 1997, it has all of the musical influences and stylings of albums at the time, from Dying Fetus to Dehumanized to Internal Bleeding, it’s pretty much on par with the releases of those bands at that time, just mid-paced chuggy brutal death metal with plenty of breakdowns for wanna-be tough guys to flex to. Frank Mullen of Suffocation and Rich Nagasawa of Dehumanized lay down backing vocals in a few spots, but, who seriously gives a shit? Malamor is neither Dehumanized nor Suffocation, and their guest vocals add nothing to the music, they pretty much just blend in. The problem is, in this style of music everyone tries to sound like Frank Mullen, so when Frank Mullen does lend his pipes to a track, it really doesn’t have any impact at all. If you do buy this album, don’t expect to be blown away, because Dead To The World is nothing special and would not have been missed if it had never been released. Hopefully the new material they’re working on will prove to be of much better quality than this, with 8 years to work on it, it sure as shit had better be if they want to continue going around calling themselves "legends".

Written By: Teufel