(written by Islander)
About 3 1/2 years ago we premiered a jaw-dropping debut album named Abysmal Misfortune Is Draped Upon Me by the Australian death/doom band Malignant Aura. We called it “a towering and soul-shuddering success, one that’s just as capable of kicking your heart into over-drive as it is of dragging you into abyssal netherworlds where dread and grief endlessly reign.” And now Malignant Aura return, building upon the success of that debut with their second full-length, Where All of Worth Comes to Wither.
The new album is more concise than the debut — five songs and 46 minutes versus six songs and 53 minutes — but it surpasses expectations that the band’s compelling debut generated, which is no mean feat. We have a sign of that achievement through our premiere today of the album’s second single, “Beneath A Crown of Anguish“, in advance of the album’s collaborative release by Memento Mori, Grindhead Records, and Primitive Moth.
This new song is a long and elaborate one, and its dynamically changing hybrid of death and doom metal creates an experience that is so emotionally devastating as to be frightening. It manifests agony, despair, grief, and fury, viscerally unsettling in manifold ways but powerfully gripping from beginning to end.
At the outset, as the drums methodically crack like hammer-on-anvil and rumble like boulders, the dissonant and distorted opening riff seems to whine and wail, creating a chilling harmony of pain and despair, pierced by a flickering lead-guitar spasm that exacerbates those terrible feelings.
But as forecast above, the song is an elaborate one and undergoes continual change. It becomes ethereal and haunting; it staggers and seems to moan in agony at the advent of gritty growls and wretched, near-strangled howls; it introduces melodies of grief that slowly flow like rivulets of tears; and as the drums erupt in frantic bursts, the riffing begins to sound demented.
Without losing the melodic through-lines that have been introduced, a guitar solo takes them and makes them more distraught, paving the way toward rapidly writhing fretwork that sounds vicious, and a resumption of the distressed soloing.
The vocals remain as frightening as when they first appeared, and the song grows both more battering and more convulsive, ultimately exploding in a crescendo of blasting percussion, harrowing screams, and tortured fretwork contortions. Even when the crescendo somewhat subsides and the pacing slows, the music remains emotionally shattering straight through to the unsettling reverberations of its final moments.
Malignant Aura have drawn inspiration from a variety of respected sources — Incantation, Paradise Lost, Virgin Black, Hooded Menace, Mournful Congregation, Candlemass, Disembowelment, Pallbearer, Katatonia, Asphyx, and My Dying Bride. Many of those influences are evident in the song you’ve just heard, and it’s likely to appeal to fans of those influential bands as well.
Memento Mori will release the CD version of Where All of Worth Comes to Wither on January 26th, 2026, while the vinyl version will follow in mid-February from Grindhead and Primitive Moth. All the editions feature the riveting artwork of Paolo Girardi that you saw at the top of this post.
For more info, check the links below — and also give a listen to the first single from the album, “The Pathetic Festival“.
LABEL LINKS:
https://www.memento-mori.es
https://www.facebook.com/memento.mori.label
https://www.facebook.com/grindheadrecords
https://grindheadrecords.bandcamp.com
https://primitivemoth.bandcamp.com
MALIGNANT AURA:
https://www.facebook.com/malignantaura
https://www.instagram.com/malignant_aura
https://malignant-aura.bandcamp.com