Review: Hemoptysis “Misanthropic Slaughter”

Right, that’s it. I’ve given up. My inbox is full of up-and-coming bands. Some of them are crap, but surprisingly, many aren’t. And I want to share them with you. So I will be writing a few more reviews of lesser-known stuff, starting with this album – Hemoptysis’ Misanthropic Slaughter.

Hemoptysis are a Phoenix, Arizona-based thrash band who are tearing up the metal media with buzz around the upcoming full length album, Misanthropic Slaughter, due to release March 8. They’re one of the bands I pulled out of my inbox and was mighty surprised to discover they’re unsigned. They won’t be for long. With a professional outlook and a sound as catchy and metal as theirs, Hemoptysis are set to be a name to remember in years to come. They’ve been named top Metal Artist of the year in 2009 and 2010 LA/Phoenix music awards, and you can’t hardly browse a metal blog these days without seeing their name on a glowing, 5-star review.

Here at Steff Metal, we don’t give stars. You can tell I like something by the amount of times I say fuck. I only swear when I get really enthusiastic.

Fuck, what a riff! Fuck, the drums! Fuck fuckety fuck fuck.

You can hear a strong classic heavy metal in the riffs, the structure of the songs, the bridges and the solos. They’ve heard the classics, loved the classics, and built their sound on that solid base. I love the fucking vocals – I’ve heard this style of vocals (a real death/black influence) in thrash before, and it has NEVER worked, until now. Most of all, I love that this is an album full of songs. There are clear musical themes that define each song. You can pick out your favorites and stick them on your iPod, although, honestly, I’d just stick the whole album on. There aren’t really any weak tracks Have I mentioned the fucking amazing riffage yet?

It’s a testament to how much you enjoy a record when you start wishing the band would hurry the fuck up and tour NZ. I would host these guys in my living room just so I could tear it up with them. The quality of this album is simply staggering. I’ve heard professional bands with ten years of production experience behind them who couldn’t lay down an album this punishing, this tight, this grounded. It’s also great to see a band who have their website, their press material and, basically, all their shit together.

Thrash metal is probably one of hardest genres to pull off successfully. You either come off sounding like a hackneyed parody of what came before or a bunch of deliberately off-key arty kids whose balls haven’t dropped. The heyday of thrash has long since passed by, and I hate it when people start making up labels like the “New Wave of American Thrash Metal” or the “Third Coming of Thrash-Influenced Death Metal” or anything with the word “post” in front of it. But if someone were to call these guys the New Wave of American Thrash Metal, I would begrudgingly accept that this was a title well-deserved.

You can pre-order Misanthropic Slaughter from the Official Hemoptysis website, and check out a few tracks on their Myspace page.

If any labels are reading this, sign the shit out of this band. They deserve it.