The dark arts have been naturally inspired by our recent pandemic, and here its effects are integrated with the perspective from one notorious mastermind, whose grimness has endured since the days of Les Légions Noires to curse these rotten times. After MÜTIILATION came to an unfortunate end, Meyhna’ch confirmed the death was only partial on his 2017 solo emergence titled Non Omnis Moriar, and its pronounced experimental torments combined with traditional methods to forge a personal highlight during that era. The affliction now continues on a second manifestation, and as its title suggests, Miseria De Profundis descends further into dejection alongside many orchestrated shades of negativity. While the hallucinatory elements remain potent, a favorably raw shift is noted in the balance, and it reflects an inward loathing that MEYHNACH projects out toward the ongoing human plague.
A dreary lo-fi haze issues from the onset of “Virus,” and otherworldly influences lurk among its notes, which matches a raw production apparency with the more peculiar aspects of this venture. Militaristic drum rhythms proceed until a slower course takes hold alongside wretched vocals, as if to herald some abhorrence crawling from beneath a mass grave, and multiple distinguished layers enhance the arrangements while trudging across synth and organ breaks. Strange encounters are highlighted in these areas, and industrial beats create a marching effect when merged with the earlier warlike percussion. The rhythmic variety unveils a blasting pace, with its imposing wrath mirrored in the concurrent riff menace, and tremolo points surge over the bleakness for an attack that persists on “To Exterminate the World.” Similar currents shred through alternations of speed and heavy emphasis, and a haunting aura rises amid the advance toward “Into the Weird,” where thrashing and synth hallucinations lead to the depths of depressive severity. The oppression subsides for a SABBATH-like invocation of doom, and it carries the burden with consistent force, along with other shadowy elements that realize a desolate and anguished collective.
Funereal keys precede a comparatively upbeat tone on “Grim Omen,” but escalating tempos reveal a bleak fury in its progressions, and heightened melodic and tremolo layers also weave raging levels of gloom throughout the harsh mass. It delves into a section with pulsing bass that orchestrates ruin alongside other corresponding notes, and its psychedelic influences resurface during a relatable encounter on “Relapse,” where ominous pianos enclose a composition marked for its prevailing despair. Meyhna’ch incorporates multiple dynamics within his resigned vocal delivery, and here especially a demonic presence is exercised in his rasps, along with deeper moans that drag across a cumulative sense of desperation. This possessed state continues and expands during “In Search of Wasted Time,” with an arpeggiated and ambient entry haunted by lower distorted voices, and riffing diversity is further illustrated with a thrashy rhythm that morphs to amplify its swinging accents. A raw tremolo intensity soon launches the advance toward another evocative development, which then reaches a final engulfment on “Tentacles of Anguish.” The delusions become reality as multiple disturbed effects manifest within a medium of crushing dissonance, and the forces gradually close in with deranged echoes conveying a consummation in madness.
Various inflictions unfold through the lyrical malevolence, beginning with “A jinx to turn the voices to silence from the oligarchs ruling this dumpster” on “Virus,” and this familiar scenario and apt worldly descriptor progresses to the “Stench of panic breeding the downfall of society.” Allusions to an exacerbation from other pre-existing conditions are discerned in “The pandemic over humanity under the yoke of the virus,” and psychological distress also takes hold as those “Sectorized like animals in cages” suffer from “Boredom and booze slowly eating their mind.” A wish that “May they all die” directs further ruin at this compromised population before “A black tumor of wrath and fury” expands on “To Exterminate the World.” This track pursues total atrocity when “Fantasies are fulfilled with crimes,” which include “Cannibalism and child abuse,” and its “Barbaric will to inflict a worse agony” targets multiple religions with an intent that “Their morality will be raped and ravaged.” Cruelty reaches an indifferent excess “As the so-called leader will suffer a thousand deaths,” and foreseeing how “The world will become a putrid mass grave” turns “Everywhere grim and sad” to fulfill the brutality from “Terrorists of Satan.”
Madness intensifies when the substance consumed from a “Cauldron of vice” leads “Into the Weird,” and the insistence to “Abandon all control” follows as “Demons crawl around you,” with profound insights attained in “Everything before this night was wrong.” Haunting torments remain as “Traumas from the past are raping your perception,” and a shift to perceived social issues is apparent in “Sudden forbidden words” and “Dictated tolerance” on “Grim Omen.” These are connected to “Proselitic inbreds,” whose “Religion and laws progress as cancer” toward “An end without glory,” and mutual disdain is shown in how “They despise us” and “Grew up to be my enemies.” A resolution that “We’re from another race, and we desecrate you,” precedes the second wave, where a “Mutation was silently breeding the impending extinction” on “Relapse,” and some ancient trace is related to this modern catastrophe in the “Dead meat wagons carrying carrions.” Despair is noted in how “Their dreams are shattered as there’s no tomorrow,” and the problems associated with mass death appear in “Fields of containers awaiting for a solution.”
A different conflict arises on “In Search of Wasted Time,” and it centers on futility and the self through a “Silent witness of your destiny,” who “Saw your hope and flame slowly sinking on each second that dies.” Questions arise on “Who are you at the end” while contemplating that “Life is an absurd instant,” and insanity is apparent when wondering “Is it just me speaking to myself?” The final descent proceeds with “In your shadow I follow you down to hell,” where the “Fingers of death, near” on “Tentacles of Anguish,” and torment is sealed with the reality that “You’re trapped.” An intriguing combination of personal and public struggles are channeled through the severity of these scenes, and their dark considerations parallel the uncompromising aural affliction.
MEYHNACH doesn’t need a pandemic to inspire his virulent musical visions, but the impact from our recent past was surely conducive to the concentrated dread on Miseria De Profundis. A dark myriad is explored through its hostile spirit, which infuses the genre’s primitive approach with many alluring features, and it ventures into a warped psychology brought about by the human condition. The length of certain tracks, while seeming excessive at times, is also justifiable in driving an oppressive quality within the work, and dynamism is promoted when synth passages emerge, along with the rhythmic and melodic nuances coursing throughout. Comparisons with its predecessor suggest different measures of experimentation and blackened orthodoxy, with Miseria De Profundis being somewhat more aligned with the latter, and so favor between the two will ultimately depend on mood and preference. Wherever this subjectivity may fall, MEYHNACH has unleashed a significant menace to both reinforce and advance the raw black metal renown.
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