Welcome to Demo:listen, your weekly peek into the future of underground extreme metal. Whether they’re death, black, doom, sludge, grind, thrash, -core, heavy, speed, punk-, stoner, etc., we’re here to bring you the latest demos from the newest bands. This week’s Demo:listen is consumed by the black flames of Sweden’s Malakhim.
Just over a week ago a new black metal band proclaiming themselves as Malakhim released their demo via Bandcamp. Called simply Demo I, Malakhim’s three track demo ultimately signifies the advent of a new and intimidating force in the black metal underground. And yet their name is the plural form of the Judaic word for “angels.”
E., vocalist of Malakhim, explains: “We chose the name due to its double-edged meaning of angel and messenger, so Malakhim in our view represents the latter in a quite fitting term. We’re the messengers of Satan’s breathless whisper.”
If that’s not ominous enough, Malakhim are yet another band who enshroud themselves in almost complete anonymity, so there’s really only guessing at who’s truly behind this darkness.
“Me and TK have had previous dealings with each other,” E. admits, and no more. As for, the other members, VT, AN and AK—who knows? Whoever the members of Malakhim are it’s obvious that this is not their first attempt at black metal. Allegedly forming in 2016, on Demo I, Malakhim display a satanical prowess for writing flawless executioners.
The first track is an absolute gorgon, stoning you solid in its path only to blast you apart with lightning bolts. E. says he “had . . . a Greek era twin lead guitar feeling from ‘A Thousand Burning Worlds’.”
Demo I sounds nothing like a demo, save for being only three songs long. A demo doesn’t need to be lo-fi, it’s just that most are. Bands record to the best of their abilities. So, it makes sense that Malakhim’s demo sounds like a million bucks. They’re worthy of this excellent production job, and it suits them.
“We recorded the drums outside of Wolf’s Lair, but everything else was done with the help and support of M Norman, a very close friend to us all [who] did a fantastic job in both capturing the audial essence and bringing out the details with the mix and the master.”
E. goes on to describe Demo I’s second track, “The Mass of Flesh.” He describes the song as “a feast of flesh at the crossroads where our world and the next meet, where all the witches dance and copulate to bring forth the devil’s spawn on the earth.”
As for the demo closer, “Golden Shrines,” E. says this song deals with “[t]he horrid shrines that lurk within our mind that we—consciously or subconsciously—awaken and erect within ourselves. When the barrier between realities shatter and give way to the smothering darkness, the awakening of the beasts that slit creations’ throat.”
Malakhim’s demo is painfully not out yet. But when it comes out, it’ll be on tape, and it’ll have a killer front cover.
“[The cover]’s a drawing by the incredibly talented Karmazid. I felt it captured the general themes of the demo quite well, that’s all. It resonates very well with the lyrics . . . We’ve had an overwhelming response for the demo to be honest. We are looking at pressing a batch of tapes ourselves first in a smaller number. Consider it a rite of passage of sorts for ourselves.”
You know what that means? They’ll be limited and it’ll be every metalhead for himself once these go up for sale. Thankfully, E. says he’d be fine with letting a label re-release the tapes, “if there’s still demand.”
