Style: technical death metal, brutal death metal, progressive death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Archspire, Analepsy, Atheist, Devourment
Country: United States-IL
Release date: 13 December 2024
When December comes around and list-making season is upon us, album releases inevitably slow to a trickle. But in 2024’s dearth of Yuletide releases, Misanthropy are set to release their third full length album, The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance; it is succulent manna from heaven in this dire time for a music fan. To hear this album in December overwhelms the senses like a rainfall in the Sahara, so plentiful the deluge of stellar riffs. It is my duty to caution every tech fan not to finalize their year end list yet: Misanthropy will be the best gift under the tree.
These Chicagoans aren’t subtle, from the most aggressive fretless bass tone I’ve ever heard to the solos which erupt out of the foundations of the song like bubbling magma with nowhere to escape, the pressure building up in a violent ejaculation of liquid stone. Within just the first song, “Of Sulking and the Wrathful,” the band has me asking several profound, life-altering questions… Is 2:30 what it would sound like if Devourment could gallop? Is the swing solo at 3:45 what First Fragment would sound like if their jubilance were turned into a deep hatred for mankind? Each moment is fresh and exciting because you know damn well whatever filth is imminent will pulverize you. The faster cuts are nonstop tech eargasms, but even slower cuts like “Descent” never relent their chokehold. “Descent” builds through slimy pinch harmonics and Ad Nauseamisms (you can’t tell me that little tremolo at 2:15 isn’t straight from III). And my goodness the riffs: I think “A Cure for the Pestilence” may contain my favorite since Horrendous’ Ontological Mysterium last year… until possibly only two tracks later at 4:00 into “Sepulcher.”
Keeping The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance engaging throughout its forty-four minutes is the band’s engagement with differing tempos. The album spans the gamut of death metal from the crawl of Worm’s death/doom to Archspire’s legendarily hyperactive pace, and, even more miraculously, Misanthropy keep the package coherent with well-composed, hyper-organized transitions between riffs—there’s a calculated chaos in their sound not unlike Aseitas’ very solid album from earlier this year. To keep Misanthropy’s cadence honest, Paul Reszczynski (drums) and Mark Bojkewycz’s (fretless) monitor the rhythm section like Scrooge keeping track of his pursestrings—that is to say, they’re tight. Just listen to how Reszczynski beats up the kit at 3:40 in “Sepulcher.” Like any good prog/tech band, the guitarists are no slouches either: Kevin Kovalsky and José Valles excel at filthy breakdowns just as much as they do at face-melting shred. The four-piece operate as a hulking beast, loping with as much momentum as a planet-sized asteroid.
Kovalsky is also quite the vocalist with squalid belches, gutturals, and growls, a fitting collection of brutal techniques. He even switches to predominantly piercing highs in “Sepulcher,” and I wish he made that switch more. While the instrumentation is incredibly varied with unceasingly mutating riffs, Kovalsky’s vocals get left behind to only a touch above serviceability—despite showing off he has the ability to spew vitriol like a demon. But besides the desire to hear more of his throaty highs, Kovalsky is well-balanced in the mix as are the rest of Misanthropy, and despite the punishing nature of brutality on the old tympanic membranes, The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance is incredibly easy to listen to and doesn’t revert to lame genre tropes like the slam snare or the hyper-clean mix that modern tech death bands succumb to.
Overall, the production is wonderfully organic, probably even Fair Trade.
Misanthropy have channeled their hatred for humanity into a hydroid beast, rippling with muscle and bristling with energy. I name dropped a lot of fantastic tech bands in the review, but while Misanthropy draws from many, they never feel derivative; The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance transcends its influences to carve out its own niche in one of the most crowded scenes in the underground. Misanthropy is punishing and frenetic, a holiday gift that will uproot best-of lists and be on repeat well into 2025.
Recommended tracks: Of Sulking and the Wrathful, A Cure for the Pestilence, Descent, Sepulcher
You may also like: Carnosus, Replicant, Malignancy, First Fragment, Veilburner, Heaving Earth, VoidCeremony, Aseitas
Final verdict: 8.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Misanthropy is:
Kevin Kovalsky – Guitar and Vocals
Paul Reszczynski – Drums
José Valles – Guitar
Mark Bojkewycz – Fretless Bass
