This band has been on my radar for quite some time. From Poland, avant-garde black metal is an apt description as each of their previous three albums have been differing and accordingly intriguingly epic balls of dark atmosphere.

The opening song isn’t the title track but it would be fitting if it was. Dark voices and shadowy sounds echo through a chunking hallucinogenic rhythm. It’s kind of Hawkwind going scary and black. The song is called “The Personification of Decaying Shell”. I felt a tinge of Temple on Mars track in the uplifting pomp that starts and peeks through “The Birth of Insanity”. But this is imperious and pungent black metal and jollity is conspicuous by its total absence. So hereafter we re-enter a twilight zone where we find utter darkness and disturbed suffering. Yet somewhere in there is a hooky melody, as blood and dirt are scattered everywhere and harsh voices ring forth. It all points to an atmosphere of fear. A dark and chunking riff underscores the ringing terror and echoing roar. “Further” is hugely atmospheric. Everything points to catastrophe and chaos. The marching progress continues. The remorseless advance turns to distorted nightmares of the industrial apocalyptic kind.

The distortion and the fury intensify on “The Afterworld”. It is not only violent but we’re not on solid ground. A dark and flamboyant riff saves us, but it’s still harsh and punishing. There is a break and we’re taken into a dark vision of a world. It’s supremely evocative and another interesting twist. Seamlessly it builds up. Again I faintly smell Hawkwind in the psychedelic nature of the build-up but this is born of a darker underworld. Misanthropic Rage are not frightened to create quiet atmospheres, and this is what they do in the moody confines of “Void”. The guitar work is subtle and lush but the sounds of suffering are close by. Eventually it explodes into a ball of weighty power. The heaviness is surrounded by mystical sounds. The heaviness is not only crushing but deeply menacing too. Screams and ominous ringing then accompany the next piece of extreme heaviness “I Am”. The song surges forward like a juggernaut before briefly subsiding and then resuming its relentless roaring riff amid angry growls and nightmarish scenes. From this driving force we are taken into the spooky and chilling environment of the title song. Menace and psychological disturbance pour through this monstrous slab of atmospheric darkness. It more than does justice to its title, and captures the cold, weighty and imaginative world that characterises this album.

Misanthropic Rage have created something different again with “Hallucinatory Phenomena”. It is huge, psychologically nightmarish and all in all a fine example of evolving atmospheric black metal.

(9/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/misanthropicrage

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/hallucinatory-phenomena