Review by Norbert on December 20, 2025.

Malefic Throne's debut full-length album, released a few days ago by Agonia Records, is one of those albums that makes you involuntarily check whether you're actually listening to the "first album" of a contemporary band, and not a lost classic from the late 1990s, just pulled from a dusty shelf in Morrisound Studios in Florida. Malefic Throne is a project that brings together names well-known to fans of the genre—even if, in the realm of underground death metal, the word "supergroup" sounds a bit like a limousine parked in a mine, a term that can, and even should, be applied to the band formed by Gene Palubicki, Steve Tucker, and John Longstreth.

After the rather mediocre debut EP from three years ago, the appetite was high, but it was laced with a fear that we'd once again be treated to material where the names would prove heavier than the riffs. However, The Conquering Darkness proves from the very first seconds that Malefic Throne isn't a personal curiosity or the metal equivalent of a company's veterans' reunion, but a fully fledged, furious, and polished death metal roller. It's three-quarters of an hour of death metal that sounds like the natural, mature result of Morbid Angel's "Formulas" and "Gateways" eras, Angelcorpse's combative zeal, and Longstreth's precise, almost inhuman motor skills. Palubicki plays riffs instantly recognizable as "his," yet they don't feel recycled—rather, they feel like a consistent development of the language he co-created decades ago. And the solo parts? Sometimes so good that you wonder if it's Palubicki, and not Trey Azagthoth, who best remembers what Morbid Angel-style solos should sound like.

There are plenty of tempo changes, fluid riff transitions, moments of crushing waltzes, and sultry, Lovecraftian slowdowns that lend the whole thing just the right amount of weight. The production sounds organic and massive, without a plastic sheen—everything is clear, yet brutal, as if someone consciously decided not to "improve" death metal where it doesn't need to be. Every instrument has its place, and the whole thing feels like it was recorded by people who know full well that death metal is meant to crush, not shine. Tucker delivers a confident and venomous performance, as if he once again has something to prove, and Longstreth pounds the drums with a fury that at times seems to defy the laws of physics.

This music is old-school to the core, but no one here is dusting display cases or playing under a sign that says, "Do not touch this exhibit." This isn't a revolutionary or genre-bending album, but it absolutely doesn't need to be. The Conquering Darkness is an album that knows exactly what it wants to be and pursues that goal with iron determination. These aren't "generator songs," but death metal pulsating with experience and authentic anger. It might be Morbid Angel's best material in many, many years—only recorded by a band that isn't formally Morbid Angel.

Anyone looking for a new revolution might shrug their shoulders. However, if they want dense, merciless, and exquisitely written death metal from the people who co-created the genre, Malefic Throne delivers.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10