Malignea – A Aldeia

Malignea
A Aldeia
Label: Ethereal Sound Works
Out: 25^th September 2025
Playing time: 47:24

Malignea is a Portuguese Metal band. In their home country, they are one of the most consistent and innovative bands. Since their formation in 2022, the band has played with the same lineup. Their self-titled debut was released in 2023, followed by “A Aldeia” in September of last year. The lyrics are written in their native language. The band is also active live. The release show for the current album took place at the República da Música club in Lisbon. That evening, they shared the stage with Outshine (Sweden) and Paula Teles (Portugal).

The intro “Laudes” is melodic. Fortunately, the band doesn’t limit itself to just playing around with sounds. Acoustic guitar playing is followed by an intensification with hard guitar riffs. “A Dança” immediately picks up speed. Drummer Luís Abreu really drives his bandmates forward. Isabel Cristina sings in the highest pitches, which are mostly cleanly intoned. The guitar playing seems a bit hectic at times. “A Bruxa” also moves at high speed. The singer shows that she can also master the slightly lower notes. A solo by the galloping guitars demonstrates the musicians’ skills. The title song “A Aldeia” begins with acoustic guitar chords. Later on, the song also seems a little calmer. Epic choruses can be heard. Alternating with these, battle cries and chants create a somewhat martial atmosphere. Otherwise, the song is purely instrumental. In contrast, “O Poço” features vocals in the high soprano range again. The song is even calmer, a quiet ballad. The following “O Moinho” has an epic length of almost eleven minutes. Solemn, almost majestic guitar riffs dominate this song at first. Only towards the end does it pick up speed a little. Once again, choruses provide a lot of epicness. The song ends as calmly as it begins. The calm is over with the last regular track, “O Rei do Inferno.” Although it doesn’t quite reach the high tempo of the beginning, the singer contributes high vocals. The outro, “Vésperas,” is dominated by acoustic guitars.

Of the forty-seven minutes of total playing time, more than four and a half minutes are taken up by the intro and outro. That’s probably a bit too much. The remaining six regular tracks are all longer than six minutes, one of them, as mentioned, almost eleven. So the musicians have a lot to say per song. This makes the album seem a bit long-winded, at least in the second half. Isabel Cristina’s vocals are mostly in the high soprano range, but offer relatively little variety. All in all, “A Aldeia” is a good album. Nevertheless, Malignea still have a lot of room for improvement.

Malignea – O Poço: https://youtu.be/NwuVHu0TEEo?si=XBk3rmsg2-HWQa8k

Lineup:

Isabel Cristina Cavaco – Vocals
Luís Possante – Guitars
João Pedro Ribeiro – Guitars
Miguel Sampaio – Bass
Luís Abreu – Drums

Track list:

• Laudes
• A Dança
• A Bruxa
• A Aldeia
• O Poço
• O Moinho
• O Rei do Inferno
• Vésperas