Ah, Malignancy. One of metal’s greatest paradoxes: a band that always has at least one Mortician member yet doesn’t suck. It’s mind-boggling. And it also leads into a second paradox: if Roger J. Beaujard plays drums so damn well, why the fuck did Mortician never use his drum skills instead of that bloody drum machine? Don’t answer that as the attempt may break cosmological laws of physics, destroying our universe as we know it.

Inhuman Grotesqueries sees a changing of the guard in Malignancy though, as Beaujard is nowhere to be seen on this album, having been replaced by Mike Heller. (Though the Mortician tradition is still somewhat intact with live guitarist Ron Kachnic) Despite the lineup changes, Inhuman Grotesqueries continues forth to grind out the quality brutality, more so than usual. In fact, this is probably Malignancy’s best album to date. Malignancy still unleashes the pinch-harmonic happy riffing like Charlton Heston’s gun collection at a NRA convention. Heller puts forth a drumming performance that is a chaotic whirlwind of percussion, but never gets overly technical or too straight forward. And Danny Nelson’s gurgling vocal performance is sick and disturbing as usual.

But that’s not what sets Inhuman Grotesqueries apart from the rest of the Malignancy discography. What sets it apart is the sheer variety that Malignancy shoved into the song writing. There are elements on here where I had to double check my CD player at times to check that I was in fact listening to Malignancy. Songs like "Protagonist Complacence" and "Benign Reabsorption" have segments that sound more akin to brutal death metal bands like Odious Mortem in terms of their catchy song writing, but then there are other moments like on the hidden track where I could easily see the music being derived from more progressive instrumental acts or even some technical thrash acts. And oddly, Malignancy implements these sections so well that it actually doesn’t remotely seem out of place; Malignancy managed to create a diversified work of brutal technical grind that is extremely cohesive.

Inhuman Grotesqueries is Malignancy’s best work to date. I can safely recommend this to any fan of brutal death/grind. It is easily one of my favorite releases of 2007, and I can see myself continuing to listen to it well into 2008. Now if only they would release new material more frequently. Or better yet, offer to write Mortician’s albums so they’ll actually be bearable.

Written By: Necro-tron