Malign - Shatter And Impale (1996)

Malign was a Darkwave music project based out of San Francisco, that was active from the late 80's to the late 90’s. Xavier Haight was the core of the project. His sole LP “Shatter and Impale” was informed with a mixture of Baroque arrangements, Industrial beats, and Gothic atmosphere.



Malign was a short-lived darkwave music project led by a San Francisco goth going by the name of Xavier Haight. In 1993, he formed a record label, Anubis Records, and on it he released a compilation of songs from San Francisco goth/darkwave bands called "The Disease of Lady Madeline," which included early Bay Area third-wave goth bands such as Switchblade Symphony, John Koviak's Sub Version, one of the first appearances of Faith and The Muse, Mephisto Walz, Xorcist, Stone 588 and several other bands who have remained relatively unknown since (e.g., Fata Morgana and Kill Sister Kill (Gladys!)), in 1994. It also included two songs from Malign, both of which also appeared on its first album, "Shatter and Impale".
The music of "Shatter and Impale," such as it is, however, is rather unremarkable for darkwave, at least by the standards of a decade later. Indeed, darkwave as a musical genre seems to have more or less disappeared as more and more bands produce EBM, futurepop, gothic rock and good ol' industrial music, all of which were components of darkwave. All the songs on "Shatter and Impale" were composed by Haight, with assistance from William Faith (of Faith and The Muse), who helped with some arrangement; Brad Beaver, who provided some additional drum arrangements; Ramón Bretón, who mastered the final product; and Chad Blinman, who mixed it and helped Haight program and sequence it as well as co-produced the album in the studio.