
New Jersey death metal trio Replicant are fiercer and dirtier than ever on Malignant Reality, the band’s second full-length and fifth release since 2018. As the band’s latest single, “Excess Womb,” indicates, Malignant Reality sees the band further settle into their technical, dissonant brand of death without sacrificing the grooves and mosh parts that also existed in their sound.
The song starts off with a groove and dissonant melodies before picking up into a flurry of blast beats and off-kilter riffing. Replicant return to the song’s mean core intermittently, never drifting too far into avant-garde space. There are obvious shades of Gorguts, Demilich and Burnt by the Sun on “Excess Womb,” but Replicant are more than the sum of their parts, turning out a sound that is both familiar and foreign.