{"id":730714,"date":"2026-06-11T22:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730714\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T22:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:50:12","slug":"maladie-the-dance-of-tragedies-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730714\/","title":{"rendered":"Maladie – The Dance of Tragedies Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I initially stumbled across Germany\u2019s Maladie last year with the fifth installment of their Symptoms EP series<\/a> and immediately fell for their sax-forward, avant-garde black metal. A quick glimpse through Maladie\u2019s back catalog revealed how late I was to the game. Formed in 2009, the band has already released seven full-lengths and five EPs since 2012. Now, eighth LP The Dance of Tragedies is upon us, continuing Maladie\u2019s magnificently nutty approach to black metal by braiding strands of diverse aural fabrics into a singular tapestry that\u2019s far-reaching, fascinating, and fancifully fun. Yet we mustn\u2019t take for granted that just because a band does many things well, they\u2019ve avoided pitfalls along the way. Does Maladie juke major missteps during The Dance of Tragedies?<\/p>\n

My first time through The Dance of Tragedies was both exactly what I anticipated from Maladie and an abrupt detonation of my expectations. The outfit\u2019s signature sound persists, finding Hauke Peters slinging the sax with soulful swagger while the rest of the band skitters between full-on black metal fury (the end of \u201cVortex of Monotony\u201d), AOR tunefulness (\u201cBehind All Suns\u201d), and brief flashes of electronica (\u201cEmbrace Our Curse\u201d). The brooding intensity rife throughout Symptoms V subsides on The Dance of Tragedies, dispensing understated moments of levity that delightfully buoy the music in sharp contrast with Maladie\u2019s typically self-serious style. This direction surprised me, and though it took several listens to fully digest the album, the result is beautifully refreshing.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Dance of Tragedies by Maladie<\/a><\/p>\n

As usual, performances across The Dance of Tragedies captivate with titillating zeal. The multi-pronged vocal attack cuts with a serrated edge via emotive cleans, dry barks, and some of the phlegmiest rasps I\u2019ve heard this side of Stenched<\/a> (\u201cVortex of Monotony\u201d). Shared by Alexander Wenz and D\u00e9h\u00e0, the primary vocals inhabit unconventional stylings alongside traditional ones. \u201cVortex of Monotony\u201d features several variants, including a hip-hop flavored spoken word in the latter half, while \u201cThe Dance of Tragedies\u201d runs a marathon of deliveries that keeps The Dance of Tragedies handsomely off-kilter. Bj\u00f6rn K\u00f6ppler plays jack-of-all-trades, supplying chameleonic drums alongside sundry keys and strings, while D\u00e9h\u00e0 contributes even more keys in addition to singing. K\u00f6ppler and Alex Spalvieri share guitar duties, mostly strumming in tasteful restraint while sporadically unfettering a few bars of unbridled shredding (\u201cToo Old to Die\u201d) before yielding the spotlight to other instruments. In totality, The Dance of Tragedies enthralls with an assortment of performances that pulse with intrigue and vivacity, transporting listeners to a vibrant world all Maladie\u2019s own.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not uncommon for Maladie, The Dance of Tragedies clears the seventy-minute mark without feeling overlong. Sections of lengthier tracks, particularly \u201cThe Unknowable\u201d and \u201cOn Inaccessible Paths, Pt. II,\u201d dabble in passages that extend to the brink of their charm, yet never run out of gas. I credit this to Maladie\u2019s exploration of atmosphere as they allow rippling riffs and melodies to play out like a stone cast into the middle of a lake, where the ensuing furrows stretch across the smooth horizon until they run their course. Bolstering the momentum of The Dance of Tragedies is the vast array of sounds the band conjures. The refrain played midway through \u201cThe Unknowable\u201d reminds me of Mossgiver<\/a>\u2019s \u201cThe Cleansing Waters,\u201d \u201cBehind All Suns\u201d summons comparisons to Hail Spirit Noir<\/a>, and \u201cEmbrace Our Curse\u201d and \u201cOn Inaccessible Paths, Pt. I\u201d recall Pens\u00e9es Nocturnes and Arcturus<\/a>. Through it all, Maladie never ceases to sound like themselves, grazing other bands as reference points while never jeopardizing their own unmistakable identity.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something about The Dance of Tragedies that ineffably connects with me on an emotional level. Despite the gravity Maladie typically instills in their compositions, The Dance frolics in the face of Tragedies and injects a dimension of playfulness and hope that leaves me spellbound each and every spin. This is an album that works best when absorbed in a single session, and though time is precious, Maladie rewards listeners with utter diversity, meticulously crafting a vibrant musical experience. Swelling strings, electrifying sax, dynamic pacing, and stirring songwriting unite for an absolute blast of avant-garde metal. While it might be weird enough not to appeal to everyone, when it hits, The Dance of Tragedies shakes the room with thunderous abandon. So break out your dancing shoes and get ready to boogie\u2014Maladie has the cure for what ails you.<\/p>\n

Rating: Great
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Apostasy Records<\/a>
Websites: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: May 29th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I initially stumbled across Germany\u2019s Maladie last year with the fifth installment of their Symptoms EP series and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[43409,35704,263150,263151,222737,23275,49,48,75,45172,256103,222746,237303,263152,341,204991,196537,208,209,263153,263154],"class_list":["post-730714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-43409","tag-4-0","tag-apostasy-records","tag-arcturus","tag-avant-garde-black-metal","tag-black-metal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-german-metal","tag-hail-spirit-noir","tag-maladie","tag-may26","tag-mossgiver","tag-music","tag-pensees-nocturne","tag-progressive-black-metal","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-stenched","tag-the-dance-of-tragedies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}