photos by Natasha Rego de Assunçao
Ghost Cult Magazine is premiering “The Masque Of The Red Death,” by the infamous, long-running Toronto, Ontario-based industrial/thrash metal band MALHAVOC. The new song opens the band’s conceptual new album, The Masquerade’s Death, nearing release on Cursed Blessings Records.
A dark industrial horror-metal reckoning, Jimi LaMort’s MALHAVOC returns with the full-length album, The Masquerade’s Death, a fierce new release inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque Of The Red Death, rooted in a tale about how even the most privileged cannot escape the devastation of a pandemic. The title track reunites original members Dave C., John C., and Jimi C. (LaMort) to re-record the final song they wrote together back in 1985. The album also features guest appearances from Connor Lex Grant (Trick Casket), Ian Mumble (Overthrow), and original founding member Nigel Williams. Current members Steve Jelliman, Lee “Sik Dogg” McCormack, and LaMort all contribute as multi-instrumentalists.
Wholly conceived, recorded, and mixed by LaMort, The Masquerade’s Death runs nearly seventy minutes long. The varied album confronts themes that remain uncomfortably familiar to everyone who has lived through the past several years: loss, drudgery, and anxiety about the future. Musically, the album returns to MALHAVOC’s thrash roots, sharpened by horror-film atmospheres, industrial soundscapes, and operatic drama. The result is an emotional descent through collective darkness—humanly relatable, visceral, and universal.
The massive album opener “The Masque Of The Red Death” runs nearly fourteen-and-a-half minutes in length, traversing an immense spectrum of musical territory within its runtime, the song pumping with classic industrial elements, snarling riffs, a dystopian vibe, and cinematic horror flair.
Jimi LaMort writes, “Almost 200 years ago Poe wrote the story. 40 years ago, MALHAVOC wrote this song. Kinda strange they are more relevant today, than ever before.”
Venture into MALHAVOC’s “The Masque Of The Red Death” first via Ghost Cult Magazine RIGHT HERE.
The Masquerade’s Death will be released on 2xLP, CD, and digital platforms on November 13th. Physical preorders can be placed at the Cursed Blessings label webshop HERE and digital preorders at Bandcamp HERE. Also watch the previously issued “Respectfully Decline” lyric video HERE.
Since the mid-1980s, MALHAVOC has built a reputation for intense songs and even more intense live performances. Frontman Jimi LaMort gives everything to the expression of the music through notorious stage antics: removing clothes, climbing stage gear, thrashing through the audience, and carving a pentagram into his chest while bleeding freely. Beginning in 1985, MALHAVOC became one of the first metal bands to incorporate industrial music and samples, often inviting comparisons to contemporaries Skinny Puppy and Ministry.
Fans followed the band’s evolution from thrash metal (Age Of The Dark Renaissance, 1985, and Shrine, 1986), through industrial metal (The Release, 1990; Punishments, 1991; and Premeditated Murder, 1992), into electronic influences (Get Down, 1994, and The Lazarus Complex, 1996, both produced by Dave Rave Ogilvie). After the release of Get Down, LaMort and Ogilvie produced remixes for Mötley Crüe, Tool, NIN, and Monster Magnet. LaMort also contributed production work to Voivod’s heaviest album, Phobos. As DJ Jimi LaMort, he has made dance floors throb in goth bars, gay clubs, bathhouses, and fetish balls, while continuing to draw enthusiastic crowds to periodic MALHAVOC live shows.
While The Masquerade’s Death is currently on deck for release, MALHAVOC is also currently in production on two upcoming releases, including Anthems For The New Flesh, a David Cronenberg tribute featuring all cover songs.
https://www.instagram.com/jimi_lamort
https://malhavoc.bandcamp.com
https://x.com/malhav0c
https://www.youtube.com/@malhavocband
https://cursedblessingsrecords.com
https://cursed-blessings-records.myshopify.com
https://cursedblessingsrecords.bandcamp.com
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The post MALHAVOC: Ghost Cult Magazine Premieres “The Masque Of The Red Death” By Toronto Industrial/Thrash Metal Act; New LP, The Masquerade’s Death, Out November 13th On Cursed Blessings Records first appeared on Earsplit Compound.