Rarely do you come across a cover that so tellingly mirrors the musical content of an album as this one on German Misanthropic War’s ‘Utter Human Annihilation’. A frame of bullets and some obvious symbols in the corners surround a bunch of uzis: this is definitely not subtle stuff.
The music on offer is a wall of violence plastered to every pore. Grinding guitars, low barking vocals but most of all there is a relentless uzi-like attack of drums. The album doesn’t only have merciless pace, it is the lack of any breaks that leaves the listener without breath for the entire 35-minute affair. In around 25 years of listening to brutal stuff, I definitely have had my fair share of violent sounding Black/Death (or call War Metal or Bestial Black/Death or whatever you prefer), but Misanthropic War is definitely amongst the most suffocating bands that ever was pounding my eardrums.
Literally the only breaks that ‘Utter Human Annihilation’ has to offer is the millisecond in between the tracks. From start to finish this is an exercise in unparalleled brutality. The only bands that are coming close to this level of barbarity might be the likes of Revenge, but even these genre giants were never able to pull off something remotely alike. After these thirteen tracks it really feels like you have been hit by a high velocity steamroller – that doesn’t exist, I know, but just saying…
Anyone whose interest has been piqued by the words used above should at least try to wrap their head and ears around ‘Utter Human Annihilation’, as not only the cover does full justice to the music, so does the title. This album definitely is going for an utter human annihilation.
