Death metal underdogs Abnormality dropped the best death metal album of the year within the last few weeks.  Straightforward, brutal, honest and punishing.  They’ve been on my radar for years with 2012’s masterpiece “Contaminating The Hive”, and especially 2016’s “Mechanisms Of Omniscience”.  Their groove, riffs and nasty vocals keep you entertained from the get go.  Abnormality isn’t the overblown Archspire style of technical death metal, but they’re rhythmically wild like genre greats Suffocation.  Call it a stretch, but if this band keeps putting out great records like their most recent in “Sociopathic Constructs” they will surely find their spot with the greatest death metal bands of all time.

One of my favorite parts of the band is vocalist Malika.  Her growls are so consistent, energetic and overall just mind boggling.  You wouldn’t expect a skinny chick to front a devastatingly brutal death metal band….but voila! And to be honest, she’s better than most death metal vocalists.  Bonus points you can even understand her! Malika’s songwriting is very unique, because she actually writes about social issues that mean something to her.  She goes against the grade of writing disgusting, gory stereotypical death metal lyrics that are found in most death metal bands.  Abnormality is an awesome band, and write meaningful music that isn’t found enough in death metal these days (or ever!).  It really shows especially on this record.  She even busted out some higher ranged growls you don’t always hear from her.  Overall, they tried some new things without straying away from their sound.  The one track “Curb Stomp” is a brutal insult on the disgusting world of rapists.  How can you not love a brutal anthem like that? Shit, the lyrics include the line “Screams go unheard with your balls in a vice”…..yup.

Abnormality is a truly impressive band.  The drumming is absolutely bonkers as is the punishing bass guitar, and both are totally in sync with the rest of the band.  The guitar riffs are wilder and even more varied.  There are some sweet guitar solos thrown in that perfectly bridge these new tracks together.  For a 9 track album, it clocks in at a measly 33 minutes.  Track length doesn’t mean anything to me as long as it’s great music…..but that’s a great strategy bands put in play.  No, it’s not a grindcore band who have 5 second songs.  But it’s so short that it makes you replay the album over and over, falling for it and catching things you may not have the previous listen.  I am super guilty of that, as it’s had a TON of replay value for me.

The production is as crisp as “Mechanism Of Omniscience” and makes it an even more enjoyable album.  Everyone has room to breathe as far as the mix goes, and nothing really dominates level wise….and that’s a good thing.  Overall, there’s nothing that I have found that is bad about the album.  It’s been a wild couple years since the last release, but damn was it ever worth it with this death metal masterpiece.  Unless you’re a serious nitpicker, this album is basically perfect.  Abnormality shows the new kids how you really do death metal with “Sociopathic Constructs”.