Maldia

It's rare for me to be this on top of something. The band in question here is Spanish metal act Maldia. Granted the band has been around since 2006, so they aren't exactly new. However, they sure took their sweet time with their self-titled debut: it just came out last month. As far as I can tell, the band doesn't have much of an international audience. All the info I could dig up on them was in Spanish, and I don't intend to confuse you with my pathetic attempts at translation. The music more than speaks for itself.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

I am...honestly still in shock. Spanish lyrics aside (I understand that many of my fellow Americans don't share my love for foreign bands due to the language barrier), Maldia is one of the most impressive metal acts I've come across in a good while. Often, when a metal band is undiscovered, it's for a very good reason. Or two. Or twenty. Not only are there countless unsigned metal bands out there, most of them are almost physically painful to listen to. Either the lyrics are painfully trite, or the vocalist's attempts at "singing" are so subpar that it makes you wonder how drunk the other band members were when they decided to hire him/her. Often as not, these bands churn out the same riffs and the same patterns as everyone else on the metal scene. There are so many talent-less metal bands in both the songwriting and performance departments out there that the actually decent bands get lost in the shuffle. I'm hoping that doesn't happen here.

What Maldia offers is a bit of fresh air to the indie metal scene. You rarely find indie metal bands that can both write decent songs and actually play them. Except for some moments with the vocals, Maldia's debut is a surprisingly solid piece of thrash. Yes, there are awkward moments with the singing. For the most part, it's pretty good, but some overly dramatic moments and extremely out of place sound effects (burping mid song? Really people?) prove to be a touch annoying. However, anyone willing to look past this will find an impressively brutal and melodic album. What's more, it's free to download courtesy of the artist. I recommend you keep you eye on Maldia. They definitely have potential, which is something that could pay off for them big time in the long run.