Malady

Malady (2004)

thurstonXwhore

With ex-members hailing from both Pg. 99 and City of Caterpillar, who knows what the hell one would expect from Malady. Is it epic, grandiose, larger-than-life as displayed by CoC? Nah. Does it retain Pg. 99's intensity and forceful confrontation? No way. So what? Malady's debut and sole album falls somewhere in between, proving to be more thought-provoking than Pg. 99 and a hell of a lot noisier than City of Caterpillar.

The first track, "Tongue," almost sounds like radio play; it's that easy, but, of course, that could never happen. "Yeah" has got to be my favorite track on the album, clocking in at a mere minute thirty-eight. It starts off slow, deep, almost shoegaze-y, I'll say it. You're caught in its hardcore tranquility until it finally breaks at the end into a consistent ride of noise and yelling, a flow so hard to produce, yet they do it with such ease and without any care. "Well Again" is slow, painful, and incredibly heavy. It's the final minute of spaciness that makes you realize, "Hey, the fuck is going on?"

And then you're blown by the explosion that is the fourth track. It's classic hardcore, only to contain what is probably the most interesting and (undoubtedly) one of the coolest breakdowns ever to be recorded, considering its increasing unpopularity. "Bad Life" and "Heroine" are hardly fillers, exhibiting two different passions not commonly encountered in emocore. The songs lift you up until finally crushing your puny little heart and throwing you down into the ground. "Let's Face It" is the finale, writing the album off on a humorous note: "…Singing some shitty song about sadness or sincerity. Let's face it, you're in your twenties, and a bad poet. And you're not an artist, you're a fartist…" Chris Taylor is without a doubt referring to the millions of spawned emo bands, ruining the title and ruining musical credibilty altogether.

Personally, I find Malady to be a lot better than either of the previous two parent bands, providing for the listener something that is still very much punk rock, and something that is deeply intelligent.