Unanimity and the Cessation of Hostility

...but still nothing I would call exactly "amazing." Misericordiam was a local band to me a few years back following their unfortunate breakup later on. Sadly enough, I didn't discover the band until about a year after they were already finished. This band performed an early-on deathcore sound before pursuing something along the lines of something that can be compared to Guttural Secrete (another Las Vegas-based band). Ditching the breakdowns, cheesy pig sequels and dumb song titles, as well as trading in a readable logo for one where not a single letter can even be read - as seen on the cover - this release can very well be grouped into the longshot herd of brutal death metal acts before and after them.

Sure they retain some very minor elements that they had akin to their original deathcore sound such as the breakdown found in "Insomnia" and the shrieked vocals/almost metalcore-sounding styled riffing (as heard on "Double Penetrated Debate"), but what rubs me the wrong way about all this the most is wrapping my head around that this EP is basically a deathcore band playing brutal death metal and thus leave out a little bit of important factors in the end. As a result, they have an EP feeling unfinished in key-songwriting for some aspects in the genre they were going for. There's a lot of fun memorable entries, I mean they apparently did their Brutality 101 Homework evident that they play a slam in the song "Insomnia" and the ridiculously dumb, hilarious lyrics serve as a plus as well:

"And I can not be fighting for equality, if I'm off jerking off to pornography. My body maybe a tool but it has a method... It is not an object and never should I disrespect it. Try all you want to not understand what I mean, but you would think differently if that was your daughter on the screen. You would think differently if that was your son slipping date rape into someone’s drink."

Basically for this band's very first attempt at making a brutal death metal release, I can't complain since this has way too many good moments to refer me to refer to it as "mediocre" or just "average". It's good, but not stupendous and certainly not amazing. I would recommend it to fans of Pencil Lead Syringe and Cerebral Bore, given their slight experimentation and goofy mannerisms stray them far away from mediocrity in the end.

Track picks: "Insomnia" and "Primitive Thinking for Alternative Thinking"

Unanimity And The Cessation of Hostility is a huge step from Misericordiam's old album, A Thin Line Between Man And Machine, which was one of the worst albums Ive ever heard. That being said, it's extremely surprising that they could move above one of the worstdeathcore albums ever made and create an album that is quite possibly the best or one of the best deathcore albums ever created. This album is ridiculously talented and good. It deserves eternal fame in the death metal community. Unfortunately, real metalheads shun anything deathcore away and the scene kids are left to pick at it. Of course the scene kids preferred the craptastic old album (Because of its simplicity. This album is way to technical for their little ears), kind of pushing this album into the underground of underground metal. (Kvlt deathcore anyone?)

First off, lets explain the style of the album. The album is very heavy on blasting and speed. Its one of the fastest metal albums Ive ever heard. Every song comes at you in a burst of noise, which may be intimidating at first listen. After a couple of minutes you can get used to the speed. Luckily, the first song The Need Not Needless is the most easily digestible of the songs, so it sets you on track for the tremendous brutality to follow. It'strully head crushing, something rarely done in the sea of boring deathcore and rarely done effectively in regular death metal. Deathcore is the perfect vessel for brutality, and Misericordiam is one of the only bands who can commandeer such vessel. It's short, (only about 10 minutes) but your going to listen to this at least 10 times before getting bored so its a win. This album takes the speed and brutality of death metal, the chaoticriffage of goregrind, and the face slamming breakdowns of deathcore and puts it into something you will never forget.

Next, lets talk more specifically about the music and musicians. All of the members have improved greatly since the first album.

The vocalist has improved a lot. He has adopted very very low growls that suit the album perfectly. He also puts in some really brutal deathcore shouting/yelling like vocals that mix it up. Only thing I would have wished is that he used more screaming. There are only a couple of parts where he used screaming and it was only for a few seconds. More screams would of added more variety. Also the screams are fucking badass and well executed. That was probably my only letdown of the album. Still, his vocals are much better than most vocals you hear indeathcore.

Next, the bass. This is the only album I've ever heard where the bass effectively used a lot of riffs. Most bass in metal is the same note over and over again to create a beat, but this guy is all over the fucking place. It adds to the chaotic nature of the album. The base is used in great effect, unlike most metal. In fact this bass is my personal favorite of any album Ive ever heard. The bass is even more head spinning and technical than the guitar at times.

Ok, now the guitar. The guitar is a little hard to explain. Its pretty unique and fits the album perfectly. At times it can be best described as radio static on the fritz. Its high pitched and very distorted and all over the place. Also many of the riffs are what I would describe as "head spinning". The go from up to down in a circular fashion and to make you dizzy. It brings a sense of chaoticness that just adds to the crazy brutality. The guitar is very well written, and very well executed thanks to the talented guitarist. It seems to take a lot of inspiration from goregrind as well.

This review is getting long, so Im not going to go over the drums much. The drums are normal death metal drumming. There pretty standard, nothing special. The drummer is very talented.

Now for the epic conclusion! I don't recommend this album to angsty teens. It recommend it to the true metalheads to only listen to the best of the best. If you hate deathcore, add this to your collection. It will be the only deathcore album you will ever like. It's head spinning chaos that is technical at times. For the sake of Satan, any intelligent metalhead has to listen to this ridiculously amazing and underrated album.

I actually found out about this band by the unbeatable review preceding mine. After reading that, I was basically condemned to check out this EP by Misericordiam. And wow, I was pleasantly surprised by what I had heard.

What was even more surprising to me was that this is the exact same band that released the sub-par deathcore full-length A Thin Line Between Man And Machine just the year before. I have a feeling Misericordiam realised and understood the big mistake they had made and decided to change their sound completely for this EP. Let’s just say it was a great epiphany they had and this short-but-fucking-sweet EP is a step in the right direction for this band.

This is unrelenting brutality done correctly. Most of it is blasting, but you will never get tired of it, because there is enough going on elsewhere to keep you interested in the music. The guitar riffs are mixed somewhere underneath the melee. While they might be difficult to pinpoint at first listen, persevere with it because they are there, and they kick butt. “Subjugate” has some great riffs in it’s mid-section that go well with the blast beats accompanying them. “Insomnia” even has a breakdown that ends the track…but fear not! This is one killer breakdown that will wreck your neck, unlike the ones that were in their previous effort.

Unfortunately, because the music is so brutal, the bass guitar can barely be heard. This is a real shame because I would’ve liked to hear some nice bass sections. We do get one part at :16 in “Primitive Thinking For Alternative Living” that lasts but a few seconds, but picking it out at other parts of the EP is a real challenge.

The drumming has had some improvement and skill injected into it. On their full-length, they sounded much too sloppy and disjointed, which perhaps fit their deathcore leanings then, but now, it needs to be much more tighter, and it is. The drums blast beat for most of the album, but it never feels boring or forced. It actually sounds great, and I think the snare drum sound has a lot to do with it. It sounds snappy and fits the style perfectly.

And best of all: Long gone are the annoying bree’s from their last effort! They still have low growls and high shrieks everywhere, but this time they are completely listenable. Also gone are the clean spoken word vocals, too. They would never have fit here, anyway, so that can only be a good thing.

So, this is a complete 180 from what they did in the past, and this is a very, very good thing. They’ve done a hell of a lot in 13 minutes, and I will be extremely excited when they decide to release a full-length with this newfound sound. I can only hope they can keep this style going.

Best tracks: Subjugate, Insomnia, Double Penetrated Debate

It is quite difficult trying to describe a band when you're sure that around 99% of the people reading this have never heard of this band, or for that matter any music like it. So what is Misericordiam like? OK take the heaviest band you know. It's not Nickelback is it? It is? Wow, ok this analogy is not going to work out then. Let's start over!

Misericordiam have a rather interesting take on metal. They basically try to sound as frantic and chaotic as possible while still having a nice groove. I won't even bother trying to compare it to anything because it's just not going to happen. OK I'll try anyways. It's like having the worst diarrhea in your life but it doesn't burn.

Doesn't that sound nice? It'd be just like a water faucet.

Anyways what's interesting about the band, aside from the anal leakage, is that behind all this we have the singer incorporating the most positive and somewhat thought-provoking lyrics I have heard. I could have easily quoted some here just to kill more space but instead I'll do the same but explaining that I'm not going to do that.

Honestly though, some of the topics that the singer brings up are the following: following your dreams, ending prostitution, world hunger, gender equality, abstinence, and the like. In case you forgot, this is a metal band we're talking about here. So don't let all that scare you because it's not like you can understand anything he's saying anyways!

What you get when you listen to this band is a full on assault of your senses. Not all of them obviously. I mean, it's not like you can smell the awesome riffs. But they're there! Heavens to Betsy are they ever there! So why should you listen to this CD? If you like intense, driving, technical metal sprinkled liberally with ridiculous breakdowns and even more ridiculous lyrics then check this shit out.

Why shouldn't you listen to it? Because you're an idiot that's why. Just give it a chance damn you and stop being so narrow-minded. That's my job!