Malignment is the seventh album from Monsterworks that I've reviewed in the past eight years (not counting an EP) and I've missed at least one in that time, so this band is prolific if nothing else. The two years in between this one and its predecessor, Scale and Probability, is the longest since the 2000s. I've never been blown away by this band and their blend of proggy heavy, black and death metal but for some reason, I keep coming back hoping for something amazing. Malignment isn't amazing but it is their most interesting album since Black Swan Annihilation and easily the most coherent record of theirs I've reviewed. Monsterworks has always taken on grand lyrical themes but, on Malignment, the music reaches another level and embraces songs like "Post Everything" and "Golden Age" with a feeling of weight and magnitude. The flow of the album is noticeably better than on previous efforts, thanks to some well-executed songwriting. I'm sure some will be turned off by the post-metal "clean" singing but to me it fits in with the black, death and more typical clean singing in the breadth of Malignment's vast scope.

Monsterworks has been a band with a suspect record as my reviews go, but Malignment is a solid effort though shy of a breakthrough. If you enjoy prog rock bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis but wish they were more metal, you might find Monsterworks is a band worth investigating.