The Malfated are an English independent guitar band from London, England, who gained a cult following using online websites such as MySpace.
The current line-up of The Malfated is Karl Steiger (vocals, bass, keyboards, percussion) and Robert Ackerman (all guitars, bass, keyboards).
The Malfated are part of a significant new breed of British bands using the Internet to reach out to people, rather than being dependent on television and printed mass media.
Although The Malfated have been approached by various independent labels, the band decided to go it alone, recording, pressing and distributing their own material which they then sold online.
Their debut CD, Rat Candy, was released in June 2006 to immediate fanfare, and has currently sold in excess of five thousand copies, in an age when a big star on a big label need only sell three thousand singles to reach Number One in the UK Singles Chart.