Misanthropic Art
The Streams Of Terror  

S.N.D. Production 2013

Russian inhospitable extremist Sadist (Lashblood, Deathmoor, etc.) delivers the ninth full-length album of his Misanthropic Art project which is a 2 CD set of dissonant and cruel black metal.  

The first CD is called Chains and on the opening track, Sterile Desert's Incarnation, it immediately unleashes a storm of blazing discordant riffs and relentless drum lines.  Grim vocals and synth-laden accents slice through the mayhem. The drums have a very sterile sound, I am thinking maybe this is a drum machine but I cannot be certain.  They don't detract from the music though as they add to the unfeeling coldness of the songs.  The guitars swirl in a constant state of flux as they churn through riff upon riff like an unrelenting assault upon your sanity.  Buried Past utilizes a near melodic main riff that adds a nice flow to the song, like a majestic wind.  The song drifts back into lingering dalliances with melodic leads and rumbling double bass.  Astral textures float across the initial passages of Technocratic Slavery.  Voivod-esque broken riffs clamor to be heard as the song progresses and then collapses back upon itself.  The latter portion of the track is a lumbering monolith of crushing black doom.  The title-track is up next with its smashing eruptions of drums and shrill guitar lines that spark like dark energy, crackling and then all at once a menacing period of industrial synth and samples demolishes the listener with its brooding mechanical hatred.  Straying from the path of the album's regular framework Spiritual Emigration pounds with an industrial beat while synth notes flutter like robotic butterflies unleashing a sense of cosmic omniscience within you. 

The second CD is called Threads.  It is a 4-track excursion into slightly different realms of musical exploration.  Hard-edged shards of guitar discord ring out from the speaker like a Voivodian alarm on the CDs first track, Yellow Threads of Alienation.  Mayhem-ish rhythms and expressive guitar leads dance with each other as the song expounds upon itself.  Strange vocal personalities rise and fall within the song only to reveal warped black metal textures that bring to mind fragments of Arcturus' debut.  Aggressive frenzies bring the song to a violent conclusion.  Black Threads Of Scorn groans and throbs like a tank.  Ved Buens Ende-like bass lines add a surreal quality to the song.  Fragile, solitary guitar creates an emotional swell before thrusts of rhythmic black metal riffs streak across the soundscape of Red Threads Of Hatred which is my favorite track off this 2 CD set.  The final composition, Threads, is another instrumental of existential odysseys.  Deep space synth and piercing guitar notes summon an ominous aura for the song.  It's subtle nature and cyclopean sounds fill you with the dread of the galactic void.  Surprisingly a guitar creates a sonic landscape while metallic hammerings serve to ground the track until it is all overtaken by a wave of white noise.  

Despite their extensive catalogue, this is actually my first exposure to the malicious harshness of Misanthropic Art and I am left impressed and battered by the violent assault.