Misery Index
Heirs To Thievery

If you don't know who Jason Netherton is, it means you're not familiar with the early Dying Fetus. If you don't know Dying Fetus, it means you've missed out on a significant part of U.S. neo-brutal music. Remedy that by putting on at least "Destroy The Opposition," a masterpiece by the band shaped by the aforementioned gentleman. If you like that work, then you can delve deeper into the career of this bassist/singer and devote yourself to the entity he created after separating from Dying Fetus: Misery Index, a sort of death-grind offshoot of the famous Annapolis group.

Netherton and his group have now reached their fourth full-length, and in a decade of activity, they've produced a substantial amount of demos and splits with various bands from the American underground scene. The success of their last album, "Traitors," from 2008, is repeated with the new "Heirs To Thievery," through which Misery Index manage to push even further, leaving all the competition behind. A great album, superbly composed and undeniably impactful on any listener, even those who typically don't stray much from the canonical death metal offered by bands more tied to classic sounds. This platter maintains the brevity of communication typical of grindcore, integrating its attitude with solutions borrowed from death, hardcore, and thrash.

What strikes you immediately about this record is the cleanliness of the sound and the earth-shaking, indeed, it's the case to say, the drumming of Adam Jarvis. The most faithful admirers of the chaotic fury of grindcore might turn up their noses a bit at such a crystalline sound, far from the balance present in "Traitors," which, in contrast, made everyone quite content. However, "Heirs To Thievery" distances itself from the typical sonic stylistics of grind, and the clear sound manages the difficult task of highlighting even the tiniest details, which would otherwise remain buried under the fury with which the quartet bombards the listener's eardrums.

The opener is a slap in the face and in less than two minutes transports us into the world of Misery Index, paving the way for two of the hits of the album. "Fed To The Wolves" is a phenomenal track where nothing is left to chance. The chorus tests the sturdiness of the walls, and the double bass breaks are truly overwhelming. If you've survived, "The Carrion Call" can only astound you. In this track, you can appreciate apt melodic flashes (a term to be taken with a grain of salt, of course), especially in the vocal lines and some slower breaks. But it's in pieces like "The Spectator," a real masterpiece of the album, that Misery Index's compositional ability comes to light. Many can write brutal songs, but creating a gem like this, damn catchable (the chorus is very singable) and with such engaging riffing, is a feat achieved by few. The album continues strong yet varied, so as not to become boring (a factor to consider when albums of this kind are spinning in the player). It's pointless to describe great tracks like the title-track and "The Illuminaught," while the slowdown in rhythm in "Seventh Cavalry," a groove-laden track with a dramatic flair, is very interesting as it recalls the infamous massacre of the Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee. Towards the end, tracks become shorter and more conventional, but the sonic fury doesn’t subside, rather it heightens in blows of caliber like "You Lose," extremely fast-paced, and "Sleeping Giants," a sort of compendium of everything the group has tried to express up to this point. Misery Index bids us farewell with the Hispanic aggression of "Day Of The Dead," at the end of which the curtain falls and, finally, a bit of peace arrives.

It’s possible to say a few more words to highlight two other positive aspects of this excellent work by the Americans. The perfect growl, never too deep and perfectly understandable, of Netherton and Kloeppel is accompanied more than once by respected guests, among whom John Gallagher (Dying Fetus) and Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal) stand out. The lyrics, mostly written by Netherton, are truly brilliant and are never trivial when dealing with themes such as the social and environmental degradation of our world, modern horrors, and atrocities committed in the past by our species. In short, "Heirs To Thievery" is a powerhouse of energy, expressed in about thirty-five minutes of non-stop sonic assault. However, it’s also an album that manages, captivatingly, to offer pleasant surprises and interesting digressions. In short, a more than pleasant album, capable of spinning in the player over and over again without tiring, and I award it the title of best extreme release of the just-ended 2010.