I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2026] Malphas 

When I looked up Malphas, I learned that they were a Swedish death metal band.  But when the guys in the band took the stage, I thought, these guys aren’t from Sweden.  They look like they’re from New Jersey.  Turns out they are from Philly.  They’ve been around since 2012 and have an album and an EP out.

LIke the other two bands, there was a theatrical component to them.  The two guitarists and the bassist turned their backs to us and started a kind of creepy horror movie soundtrack.  But there was some kind of technical difficulty.  I think it had something to do with their drummer not being able to hear the clicktrack. After several minutes of trying to fix things, they gave up and their bassist said they were going to raw dog it.

So, like Spinal Tap, instead of doing a theatrical opening, they all just turned around and started playing.

But they wee really good as well.  The singer played some really good solos.  But once again, the mix was weird–the bass drums were really loud and overpowered the rest of the band.

The bass player was the joker of the group asking if we were sick of the snow.  He said too bad we’ve brought more and then said a song title that I didn’t get.

I always like it when growly singers talkin a normal voice.  And this singer did.  He sounded just like a guy from Philly–thanking the other bands and dedicating songs to them.

The vocals were mostly growly but they were largely understandable, which was good.

Malphas is the main opening band for this Arkona tour, with the other bands changing depending on the venue.  So I guess Arkona must like them.  I did.  Listening to their record, they have a lot more going on in the songs (choirs and keys) which I think i would have liked even more if they included it.

But like the other two bands it felt really … amatuerish?  And by the end of the set I worried that I made a bad call coming to this show–was it going to be just like a show where the audience is all the band members’ friends?

Thankfully, Arkona stepped up.