Album Review: The Malefic Grip – Yesterday’s Problems, Today (Self Released)

Formed in 2015, The Malefic Grip initially struggled to hold a steady line up before finally making their impressive live debut in March 2018. A performance which led to The Grip’ being offered support slots with the sludgy and fuzzed-out likes of Fistula, Torpor, Bong and Ritual King.

With the stable, if short-lived line up eventually falling apart in late 2019, the remaining duo of Helen Kinsella (Guitar/Vocals) and Liam Wolf (Vocals/Guitar) plotted once again to find their missing piece, but with lockdown throwing all plans of performing live or even jamming squarely into the sun, the group did the only thing they could to avoid stagnation and composed seven bizarre and blown out tracks of hammering sludge-punk.

Serving as a frustrated, rage-filled vent at where society finds itself two decades into the 21st century, guitarist and vocalist Liam Wolf describes ‘Yesterday’s Problems, Today!’ as ‘Stupid wordplay and gory fantasies of revolution blended with equally unhealthy doses of sarcasm and cynicism’.

Yesterday’s Problems, Today! will be released on April 30th 2021.

Pissed off, brimming with rage and ready to vent, The Malefic Grip have a ton to express and Yesterday’s Problems, Today! is their sounding board. A very weird, very heavy, very punk-infused sounding board which will certainly gain the attention of those looking for something that exemplifies their bottled up emotions.

In a nutshell, that is what Yesterday’s Problems, Today! sounds like. A mass of bottled up emotions finally erupting like a devastating volcano. Sometimes it spews out at a destructive speed, at others it moves at a glacial pace but with intense power. The thickness of the riffs, the absolute beastliness of the bass and drums, the duel vocal styles; both as harsh as the other. This is meaty metal, dripping with sludge intensity but not handcuffed by it.

Instead, The Malefic Grip shift and lurch unexpectedly like a landslide. Unfocused but purposefully, their filth covered sound gets under the skin. Itchy and infectious, twisted and dark, unique and exciting.

Well worth checking out. Especially if you need to let some things out.

The Malefic Grip – Yesterday’s Problems, Today! Full Track Listing:

1. Piss Hassle
2. Incel Jesus
3. Malvoid
4. A Neglectful Throne
5. Derpsmirker
6. Vitality Leach
7. Worms

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram