Misery Index
For Baltimore death metal savants MISERY INDEX, being alert and vociferous about present day societal strife is an extension of death metal’s tried and true traditions. The band stands out for their socially-critical lyrics which focus on everyday themes of exploitation, alienation and injustice. With their albums, the end goal isn’t to cater to whatever has become fashionable or exploit cheap thrills – it’s to continue a long history of purposeful dissent. Founding vocalist and bassist Jason Netherton (who holds a PhD in Media Studies as well as being the author of the book “Extremity Retained: Notes From The Death Metal Underground”) explains, “I feel like we study and honor the history of this music, and for bands like Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Disrupt, Brutal Truth, etc., social critique is very much a part of their approach to making music. When musical traditions are not honored, you end up pandering to whatever happens to be the flavor of the month. What this practice churns out is a music culture divided into micro-sub-genres that do one or two things overly well but leaves much to be desired in terms of maintaining song structure and lyrical depth.”
Their most recent LP, 2022’s “Complete Control”, represented the band’s seventh full-length release in 19 years. For a band like MISERY INDEX, there is a constant dialogue that both addresses what they do and do not identify with, and the answers to both questions often involve looking back to their roots. Netherton elaborates, “We maintain our approach to music-making by consciously avoiding trends. We try to further what we are doing with each effort by tapping into our own matrix of influences which span the realms of punk, hardcore, death metal, and grindcore. For the most part, we write for ourselves and seek to please our own musical aspirations before those of our audience or anyone else. In many ways, our music is also inseparable from the Maryland extreme music scene it was born from, where the hardcore and punk influences historically situated in the D.C. and Baltimore areas provided us with a unique foundation to base our brand of extreme metal upon. Over the years, however, the sound has evolved considerably into a death metal band that incorporates all those styles evenly to avoid stagnation or becoming one-dimensional.”