Misery Index: Unite and Conquer
“Sorry for taking so long,” quips Misery Index guitarist/vocalist Mark Kloeppel, acknowledging the hiatus between 2015’s critically-acclaimed album The Killing Gods and their newest, Rituals of Power. Such a lull might not be noteworthy for many metal bands, but this is no ordinary metal band. With fifteen releases in the first decade of their career, what caused a five year bout of all-but-complete silence for the highly prolific quartet?
“Well, a bunch of ‘life stuff’ happened,” Kloeppel laughs. “I have a few children now, and I just got my Master’s degree. Jason [Netherton, bass/vocals] is working on his PhD. Adam [Jarvis, drums] also has Pig Destroyer and a few other bands. That kind of stuff. But I guess the biggest roadblock was the really positive reception to The Killing Gods. Not only did a lot of people connect with that record, but we thought we did a pretty good job with it too! It was epic in scope and dense in the world in which it existed. We had it in our heads that we had to top that in every way, which was the absolute worst mindset to have. I threw so much stuff in the garbage--whole songs, hundreds of riffs--and we psyched ourselves out. It took a long time to get past our insecurities and to trust ourselves, but once we did, voila!, we had this! (laughs)”
“This” is Rituals of Power, the band’s second studio album on acclaimed French label Season of Mist. Kloeppel explains, “We got back to what we do best--writing the music we want to hear, channeling the ideas that are constantly humming in our brains.” The group embraced the relatively relaxed writing pace and scrutinized every musical passage and line of prose to ensure that each truly served the new collection of songs. “There was an effort to write really catchy choruses this time around;I feel like we might have missed that a bit in the [early years]. But the songs that I come back to over and over have a chorus that sticks with you--even if they’re really long, complex songs. It feels like metal forgot that for a while, it was all about guitar acrobatics and riff salad. Kudos to the bands that do it and do it well--and ultimately people can write whatever they want--but a lot of it just sounds like Tetris inside of Pro Tools. That’s not a riff, that’s 17 sweep arpeggios in a row!”
That’s not to say there isn’t flashy fretwork on this record. In fact, Rituals’ guitar leads are simultaneously ripping and memorable.“Darin [Morris, lead guitar] joined just after Heirs to Thievery, and he’s really into Yngwie, [King Diamond guitarist] Andy LaRocque, players like that. We felt these songs needed solos that would get stuck in your head. They should be ones that a 15 year-old kid, sitting there with their guitar, can hum while they learn to play ‘em. I always loved those solos that you can sing or hum. The Kirk Hammett/Dimebag Darrell school, you know? The ones that write the really memorable guitar solos in really great songs. So, we thought ‘We need to do that!’”
Misery Index is more than just a shred-and-riff-fueled deathgrind machine, as the band’s sociopolitical identity has served as an integral part of their aesthetic since their inception. With album art and lyrics that eviscerate government corruption, the exploitative nature of capitalism, and our collective complicity in myriad systems of oppression, everything and everyone standing in the way of humanity’s progress has been considered fair game. “New Salem,” the first single from Rituals of Power, marked a change in subject matter that the group feared might alienate their politically-engaged fans.
“What’s different about that song for us is that...look, we’re obviously pro-human rights, anti-oppression, and left-leaning. We see and support these really pure-of-heart social movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter who have the clear goal of liberating people. Then you have other people working their way in, only to start wearing a social movement like it’s a new pair of shoes; they’re making a fashion statement as they [co-opt] some part of the message. It’s hard to say stuff like that because you don’t want to diminish support for these groups, but at the same time there are people with ankle-deep knowledge of the topic[s] who are infiltrators; they’re almost working for the oppressors. They’re reducing a movement to a hashtag. So I saw that, and it pissed me off, and I felt like we needed to touch on it.”
As it turns out, those fears were largely unfounded. “The reaction that we got to that song was great. It spread quickly and,a lot of people really liked it. We didn’t get lambasted by the anarchists and the leftist people that we do support (laughs). In fact, we got some messages the other day from some people in Texas who’d just heard it. They said ‘We heard from some people that y’all were extremists. But listening to your song right now, I don’t see how that could be true.’ Seeing that message was really cool, and having those kinds of people--who I see as good people who have been taught that there’s a line in the sand between them and everyone else, the ‘others,’ that they can’t cross--reach out to us and say that and have this realization...that’s just incredible. I really hope that continues to happen.”
Originally published in Decibel 174, April 2019.