Renowned as the land responsible for greats as Bryan Adams, Nickelback and Harem Scarem - to name strictly a minute few - it's a treat to be reminded that Canada do also delve into the more gothic side of rock produce.

 

Malacoda themselves delve into quite a few pages across the book as my first taste of their sound shows up. The chapters headed symphonic, doom, power metal, black metal, industrial and thrash all seem to have a bookmark clipped on the top with most of them already making an appearance in opener 'Crawling Chaos'.

 

Sporting some good male/female vocal work, the former reminding me of James Hetfield somewhat, this Toronto troupe keep the tempo paced moderately instead of ditching substance for speed. Delicate guitar-work and and gliding progressive flows make much of 'Deadlights', 'From The Depths' and 'The Harsh Law' a hugely pleasant listen, while big brusque harmonies plus keyboards that pull in every single direction with it without straining, add the weight in.

 

Hooky, haunting and heavy in equal parts, this short but strong offering should advertise their two existing full length albums in quite some volume.