demo 2001

looking for: TRACKLIST

demo 2002

looking for: TRACKLIST

demo cd 2006

1: World Demise
2: Yedina
3: Nocturnal Conspiracy
4: Misanthropia
5: Death March
6: Pure Haunting Breed
7: Darkness Triumph

With the plunge into financial success by Dimmu Borgir, black metal has gained a lot of attention from people that think that band represents the ultimate goal of a whole genre. However good this band may be in its musicianship (and even devoted to the dark side), it's still a thoroughly marketed machine that pushes its boundary only slightly every album to play safe - enough to remain at the front of the commercial black metal scene but also enough to not lose any of its fans. The consequence of this is that bands imitating Dimmu Borgir are obviously imitations (by sound, composition, and 'vibe' (yes, that's vague)), They always have a hard time to define themselves as individual bands with ideas of their own. Misanthropia is a good example of this (apart from the doomy parts that are a bit Officium Triste-like). They are good musicians (although the guitar solo's are a bit of a nuisance at times), but it feels they are going for the money shot instead of aiming for musical enrichment. Perhaps this will filter out after a few years of playing ball in someone else's construct of a genre, but only time will tell... As expected, the compositions are safe, the instruments are well handled, the production is commercial but not as rich as Dimmu Borgir's (they lack that kind of money, I guess), there are obligatory hollow words like "nocturnal" "misanthropia" and "conspiracy" there, and there's enough to please fans of that last band. I think it's okay, but nothing more than that.

REVIEWED JANUARY 2011.