Review
Malvina
Hybrid Wars

Hybrid warfare is a strategy that combines political -, conventional -, irregular - and cyber warfare. Thank you, Wikipedia, for this insight. Malvina uses the term to describe US imperialism. They denounce the rolling coup in their home country Brazil. In other words, this is highly political stuff.

Next to politics the lyrics also deal with socio-political issues such as a criticism on capitalism. This means that, even though the lyrics appear to deal with Brazil, they can be translated to your own situation pretty easy. So don’t be scared if you are not as familiar with Brazil and its current political climate.

Having previously released one album (long ago in 2010), one EP and one single, Hybrid Wars is only their second full length in 9 years. Hybrid Wars is an album four years in the making and that is something you can hear. This album sounds really thought out. Every riff is right where the band intends it to be. Every transition sounds really natural, which is an art in itself, especially considering how many transitions the band includes in their slightly progressive sound. Not every song is brand new. If you have followed the band “Scenario” should sound familiar. This song was used as a song to protest against the Olympic games in Brazil.

Malvina’s style is mixture of punk and hardcore with some metal leanings. The first band that came to mind listening to this album was Propagandhi. This album approaches, but fall just short of the high level that band reaches. I struggled with pin pointing where the album falls short. In the end, despite all the tempo changes, after listening to the record multiple times, I have a hard time remembering single parts of songs. The songs blend into each other a bit. A bit more variation would not have hurt.

The singers voice is one of the selling points for the band, in my book. He has that sense of urgency that lyrics like this needs. The strategic use of backing vocals increases the vocal impact. I hope this will be applied even better on a next release. Speaking of which, I hope we will not have to wait that long for another release!