RSS Feed


PISSGRAVE
Malignant Worthlessness

Profound Lore / Night Shroud (2025)
Rating: 8/10

Pissgrave have been disturbing our minds since 2013, and the grubby ghouls from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are back to stain our carpets once again. If you know this grimy bunch then you’ll already be familiar with the sickly layers of smog they create. These sickos opt for an ultra-violent attack fronted my muffled vocals which sound as if Donald Duck has stuffed his mouth full of soggy socks. I’m sure the guys won’t appreciate that comment but such outbursts add further levels of insanity to what is already a deranged experience.

The title track hammers down like some gargantuan set of iron jaws, clamping down on garbage and limbs and dragged with haste by the hideous drum assaults. It’s arguably the band at their most accessible though because elsewhere the audience literally gets battered by an unholy and unhygienic tirade of foul winds, again propelled further into hyper horror by the percussion of Matt Mellon. Even so, songs such as ‘Dissident Amputator’ also let you in to their more methodical, measured gnashing menace.

With each track Pissgrave bludgeons with a devastating efficiency. There’s nothing intricate here, the only real surprise emerging via ‘Heaping Pile Of Electrified Gore’ where at the climax we are treated to some clear vocal narration amidst the blur and blasts. Some high speed evil spurts from the vile haste of opening track ‘In Heretic Blood Christened’ and the subsequent abuse of ‘Three Degrees Of Darkness’. This is Pissgrave at their most aggressive and furious but it’s still mucky enough for those who worship at the altar of their infernal gunk.

‘Interment Orgy’ begins like a rattling generator, working in hellish tandem with the squabbling vocal slop. It sums up the barbaric nature of this vile platter, one as comfortable with its thrashy dynamics as it is plundering the depths of grindcore, which at times is circa Concrete Winds for pure chaos, yet all encased with a maggot-chewed shell of death metal.

Apparently, this is the last record in the trilogy, following on from Suicide Euphoria (2015) and Posthumous Humiliation (2019), and no doubt Pissgrave will add further mystery to their elusive reputation by disappearing down some sewer, but the legacy here is lethal.

Malignant Worthlessness is less rewarding than a lot of death metal simply due to its often relentless challenges, and in turn I challenge anyone to keep such a squalid opus on repeat. In spite of this being a formidable return I’m still taking marks away for the daft vocals. Some may say that such ducky babbling is extreme, but in my opinion they negatively distract from the general feel of horror.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share