Malignus Youth

I don't even remember how I heard of them, to be honest. It was only a few weeks ago. Malignus Youth, a band with an inscrutable name from the middle of fucking nowhere in Arizona. Nothing really that jumps out--there are tons of unknown hardcore bands from the eighties, and most of them suck--and their discography is frustratingly evasive. I mean, Malignus Youth had fewer than 10,000 vinyl records pressed in their lifetime and their supposed CD re-releases have been out of print for god knows how long, even unavailable on the links the band itself provides. Still, those who saw the band live in its day still remain fans decades later. And wouldn't you know it, they're incredible, distinctive, and awesome.

Their songwriting, standard at first, soon became very complex and experimental. Their bass is also amazingly well-played, prominent, and melodically important for a hardcore band. But they have other qualities that make them not only a great hardcore band but a great, unique hardcore band.

To illustrate, let's take a little digression: perhaps you remember last year's indie fad Fleet Foxes. They made a lot of noise with their vocal harmonies: an underused musical tool that time and time again proves to be effective and quietly beautiful. Another digression: hardcore punk, glorious in its speed and power, frequently restricts itself with harsh, strained, indecipherable screaming as vocals. WHERE, O WHERE COULD I BE GOING WITH THIS

SHOCK AND HORROR WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED: Malignus Youth is, to my knowledge, the only hardcore band to regularly utilize melodic vocal harmonies. And dear Jeebus, it's such a perfect fit one wonders why every hardcore band doesn't do it. Lead vocalist Octavio Ojale also has one of hardcore's highest singing voices, in stark contrast to the hoarse bellowing so common to the genre. Honestly, this alone would make me love this band. It's all so simple! Why didn't everyone think of this?! Music as intrinsically aggressive as hardcore doesn't need its vocals striving for aggressiveness too. Tuneless screaming over hardcore punk, while effective, leaves one with a very limited palette. Why else was the hardcore scene so short lived? Why else did Minor Threat only record 26 songs? There's not much you can do with it. Why, then, is it so rare to find hardcore punk where the music's aggressive power finds a counterpoint in dulcet, melodic, harmonized vocals? I DON'T FUCKING KNOW BUT I KNOW WHERE YOU MOFOZE CAN GET SOME--RIGHT GODDAM HERE YOU MORONS

So after hours and hours of searching, I finally got what I believe to be Malignus Youth's entire discography. First, I downloaded their full length, More To It. I loved it, but the sound was appallingly bad--the guitar was almost inaudible, it was far softer than any other songs I own, nearly a deal breaker right there. I then got their self-titled EP from another sketchy blog, which had far better sound quality, I was all "whuh their early EP has better sound than their magnum opus LP that's cray-cray" (keep in mind this "far better sound" is not exactly hi-fi either). THEN I found a sketchy blog that had Malignus Youth's CD reissues: Vinyl CD and Missa Brevis/Ephemeral. Vinyl CD has their self titled EP, the EP Crisis, and More to It. The weird thing is that the EP and LP songs on this version not only had better sound, but were distinctly different takes--the tempos were noticeably different. I have no idea what the deal is with it.

Missa Brevis/Ephemeral is the last thing they ever recorded. Ephemeral is just random unreleased stuff. Missa Brevis was inspired by the tradition of music being composed for a mass (Missa Brevis means Brief Mass) so they made a hardcore album with lyrics for a Latin mass. For this, some have called them Christian punk, although others vehemently deny it, and I don't know. No official description of the band mentions it, all the dialogue was on sketchy blogs, and honestly, I don't even care. I can't decipher most of the lyrics because they're sung too fast, and there are tons of bands who sing about shit I don't agree with. If I'ma be OK with Vic Bondi and Jello Biafra's batshit crazy politics or Public Enemy's homophobia or Ras Kass's intense anti-white racism or Pharoahe Monch's ridiculous conspiracy theories or Ian MacKaye's retarded straight edge philosophy, why should I forsake a band of incredible skill because they might concieveably be "Christian?" Fuck if I know, and you shouldn't either. Missa Brevis has mad/hella/very great songwriting and I love it. Malignus Youth are crazy great.

Vinyl CD
http://www.mediafire.com/?mmej4vmmym5

Missa Brevis
http://www.mediafire.com/?mx13nddz5ji