Men in Search of the Perfect Weapon

Once in a while it happens that a band becomes a legend within the narrow borders of subgenres. This band achieves the status of a legend if they a) release a towering album and b)split up shortly after. MISOTPW have done so and are my personal heroes of the last 2-3 years.

There has been written so much about NEUROSIS, ISIS, CULT OF LUNA and such alike bands of post-hc-doom-sludge-whatever origin and yes, some material of them is of supreme quality. But suddenly there comes along this young German band and blows away EVERYTHING that tries to combine heaviness, songwriting-character and variations of emotions within slow metal musick. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the real deal!

Where to start?
A brutal and massive sound. A harsh black metal/sludg alike voice, cleverly used here and there to spread the few words of life’s misery and hope. Intelligent and highly effective song structures, many mid tempo parts being perfect to simply bang your brain out, breaks used cleverly to slow down and to lead to those parts of extreme melody and, yes tragedy! Its unbelievable to listen to this ability to pour both brutality and remarkable melody into one song. Take for instance “spirit disease” or their masterpiece “fall for your creation”: downtempo brutality – break – short semi acoustic intermezzo – wall of massive low tuned melody. Goosebumps! Listen to “fall for your creation” and you know what I mean. One shivering melodic riff follows the other, all performed using this crushing brutal guitar sound and the “dry” drum sound in slow tempo.

One attribute of this masterpiece is its variety and the uniqueness. While above mentioned bands use the songwriting technique of mixing “louder” parts with “quiet” ones, MISOTPW do so seldomly. They stay brutal all the time yet put some moments of silence into their musick. No real singing, only those harsh shouting. One acoustic track, one monumental instrumental (“atacama rain”) combining even some moments of postrock into this orgy of noisy melody. The rest is brutally crushing doom heaviness and beautiful melody. Not to forget the gloomy art deco like cover that fits perfectly to the character of the musick.

And yes, they have split up. That’s exactly the right thing to do after having achieved the climax of what MISOTPW could achieve ever. That’s exactly how to become a legend. The small edition of both vinyl and CD contributes to this “status”. Thank you guys for bringing such an inspiring piece of art into my life. Anything below 100% would be implausible.