When I defend Metal music and its extreme and unique musical quality I do it for lots of reasons. One of them is that bands today are looking for a diverse multitude of lyrical inspirations to write their albums. The other is that, liking it or not, agreeing or not, Metal music is not only the avant-garde of music, but also the musical genre that is open to all the musical diversity there is in this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet. Of course, there are exceptions, but even them exceptions are clearly great examples of how our beveloved music has made it possible to survive for such a long time. As I always say, Metal music evolves, and evolves fast.
Here we have Agenbite Misery with “Remorse of Conscience,” an album with the musical concept of adapting James Joyce’s “Ulysses” into an experimental metal album. The idea may sound strange, but I have to remind my dear children of the night that this kind of thing is not rare around Metal music world. The outcome is a dense and complex album with lots of layers of sonancies and influences from all verves of Extreme Metal, but not ony. “Remorse of Conscience” is a trip to the underworld of human mind with all its guilties, griefs, alienations, and sorrows. Some tracks as “A Charitable View Of Temporary Insanity“ take the fan to the soundtrack of what would be a living hell. A track as “Whatness Of Allhorse” showcases that Agenbite Misery took with lots of success the grandeur of the book is successfully into the world of Metal music. As a matter of fact, Agenbite Misery and “Remorse of Conscience,” are taken from the book as the phrase, literally “again-bite of inner wit,” or modernized as “remorse of conscience,” means.
As all concept albums, “Remorse of Conscience” brings a myriad of experimental sounds. Well, I guess the use of background noises, reverbs, dissonances, and distortions are not that rare, but they are still experimental indeed. On the other hand, there are tracks as “Bellwether And Swine“ that reminds us we are talking about an Extreme Metal band with its dashes of modern Black Metal and all its fury. The most interesting fact of the album is the deadpan vocals all over the place as a reminder that Extreme Metal makes no concessions – or it should not make. The atmospheric mood of the intro “Circe“ makes the perfect entrance to this complex layered track that shifts tempo and cadence all the time. It is fair to say Extreme Metal is drinking profusely from Free Jazz fountains.
In time, Agenbite Misery are the product of experienced experimental musicians as Sam Graff and Adam Richards who were longtime collaborators in the avant-garde project Under Green Suns and the metalcore outfit Vicarium, while Cam Netland previously fronted the stoner/black metal band Coagulate.
Agenbite Misery “Remorse of Conscience” was independently released On February 06th.
Track Listing:
01. Telemachean Echoes
02. Cascara Sagrada
03. A Charitable View Of Temporary Insanity
04. Whatness Of Allhorse
05. Bellwether And Swine
06. Circe
07. The Twice-Charred Paths Of Musing Disciples
08. Mnesterophonia
Watch “Circe” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!