Malignancy doesn’t arrive in Albany as a nostalgia act or a band coasting on reputation built elsewhere. The Yonkers technical death-metal outfit, founded in February 1992 and signed to Willowtip Records since 2005, plays what their own site calls “brutal death metal with a technical twist,” an extremely intricate, ferocious brand of the form that has evolved toward greater complexity without sacrificing intensity. …Discontinued, released in June 2024 on Willowtip, collects nine tracks recorded at Heaven and Heller Studios and mixed by Lasse Lammert. The December 5 date at Empire Underground closes out a focused fall run: Baltimore on October 23, Philadelphia on November 22, Albany last.
About the Show
The bill is assembled for Empire Underground’s annual Holiday Toy Drive, a two-night charity metal showcase that brings the Capital Region‘s heavy music community together at the start of December. Day 1, on December 4, features Full Blown Chaos and Sworn Enemy; Day 2 on December 5 belongs to Malignancy, with Ringworm and Thy Will Be Done in support. Cleveland’s Ringworm brings more than 30 years of hardcore-metal to the opening slot along with Seeing Through Fire, their ninth studio album (Nuclear Blast Records, 2023). Thy Will Be Done, out of Providence, RI, has spent roughly 20 years in the underground, building touring credits alongside Lamb of God, Behemoth, Crowbar, and Trivium.
Malignancy themselves have logged more than 250 documented setlists since the mid-1990s, spanning the US, Germany, Canada, the UK, and roughly a dozen other countries. Vocalist Danny Nelson and guitarist Ron Kachnic, who joined in 1994, have anchored the band’s output across that entire stretch — from the 1999 debut Intrauterine Cannibalism through 2012’s Eugenics and into …Discontinued, the 2024 release that ends a twelve-year gap between studio albums and features bass from Jacob Schmidt of Defeated Sanity. Their Willowtip label bio describes them as having “become more of a refined band, while still maintaining its raw sound and aggressive nature.” After 34 years, the distinction between refined and softened is one worth showing up to hear.
Venue & Logistics
Empire Underground occupies the downstairs level of Empire Live’s two-floor complex at 93 N. Pearl St. in Albany, a room well suited to this kind of bill. The show starts at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Tickets went on sale September 10, 2026. Buy tickets