I’m usually honest with you, unless there’s some kind of profit behind lying to you. Otherwise, I always share my expectations. So, when I received the promo for Monument of Misanthropy‘s Vile Postmortem Irrumatio, I felt doubtful. Why? Because a Brutal Death Metal band singing about serial killers, psychological deviance, and grotesque violence is probably why the sub-genre was invented. However, I was puzzled by the fact that the band had cared to build a narrative in this album and that Transcending supported it, as they don’t support trash. So, let’s see if I was wrong!
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Vile is as heavy as getting hit with a bag of bricks while you’re trying to eat a full box of raw nuggets. Not to mention, it’s highly eschatological. I mean, just look at that cover art! It’s probably already banned in a few countries. Sure, there’s unstoppable aggression here as you’d expect, but I enjoyed how it was used to create a horror story. There were some voice samples here and there that didn’t annoy me as they usually do because they helped build a story—one that will make your stomach sick, but I guess that was the point to begin with.
There’s one thing that stands out to me more than anything in Vile, and it’s the presence of excellent melodic lines. It often happens when music is this savage that it becomes boring; you start feeling nothing because the onslaught is too all over the place. But Monument of Misanthropy avoids this by having short tracks and guitar work that has more nuance than you would expect. It’s engaging, and for some seconds in each track, I felt I was listening to the most inhumane MeloDeath I’ve had in a while. It sounded almost noble. I almost forgot this whole album was about decapitations and necro…alright, let’s get to the bad part!
Vile is a loud album—not as compressed as I first expected, but some more dynamic range would’ve made it easier to enjoy. It might make it less intense, but for once, it’d be nice to get Death Metal of this brutality produced differently, you know, more organically. Then there’s the fact that, as I said before, Monument of Misanthropy is exploring common themes in Death Metal—perhaps too common for my taste. It’s a bit like a Black Metal album about satanism; it can sound amazing, but do we really need to hear “SATAN!” again?
Either way, this album hits a strange balance between non-stop rage and melodic groove that tells a compelling story. If anything, it reminds me of Benighted, one of the few Death/Grind bands with engaging albums. I believe that Monument of Misanthropy has yet to reach its potential and, in the future, could be that fresh band that sits between Death/Grind and Tech Death. Vile is definitely a step in the right direction!
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Release date: 9 August, 2024
Website: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMonumentOfMisanthropy.BrutalDeathMetal
Country: Austria
Score: The body parts of someone you dislike, or maybe 3.5/5.0!
Metal Eclipse Reviews 