Band:	Misery Index
Album:	Rituals Of Power
Style:	Deathgrind
Release date:	March 2019

01. Universal Untruths
02. Decline And Fall
03. The Choir Invisible
04. New Salem
05. Hammering The Nails
06. Rituals Of Power
07. They Always Come Back
08. I Disavow
09. Naysayer

It's been said about many albums before, and it can be said about Rituals Of Power; this is the result of expectation meeting reality.

Metal has always dabbled in, and at times exclusively delved into, the realm of politics, with varying degrees of success depending on how ham-fisted a band's social commentary comes across. Misery Index, on the higher end of that degree, have made a career out of their blunt-force handling of topics covering the span of socio-economics. After all, the band is named after a theorized economic analysis of a nation's financial health.

Unlike some entertainers who fall victim to espousing their ideas and opinions at the cost of creating quality content, Misery Index are now operating as a finely tuned, oiled up machine of grinding death and destruction -- with a little less emphasis on grind and a lot more on death this time around. The mid-paced chunky riffs and recurring chugging bridges and breakdowns may seem like a departure in sound compared to previous releases, but hints at this shift have been there since the band's inception. The neck-breaking grind speeds have steadily been replaced by heavier, drawn out segments, and a healthy injection of some timely solos and well-placed melody, with some underlying hardcore punk influences now being used as more of a buoy to help support the overall sound. It's nowhere near a complete stylistic change, but if the Misery Index catalog is part of your routine listening habits, it'll be immediately noticeable before the halfway point just how much focus has been placed on their death metal origins.

One of the more frustrating things in the death metal scene is the lack of bass, resulting in a thin sound where paying it more love in the mixing process would otherwise take a mediocre release and transform it into a solid piece of material. Thankfully, founding member Jason Netherton (bass, vocals) understands the importance of his instrument and ensures its value doesn't go unnoticed, making for a complete and satisfying experience -- or at least as close to enjoyable as having your ears pummeled into oblivion can get. Behind this crushing wall of devastation is a thick, groovy bass, clogging the arteries of every guitar note on display and adding a foundation of cement blended with the bone-meal ground up from anyone unfortunate to be caught in this album's path.

Having advanced into a stage of maturity where an internal assurance of quality is paramount, it comes as no surprise that Rituals Of Power may be looked back on in time as the band's magnum opus. Despite its more straightforward approach and decreasing appearance of grind elements, this is still an incredibly produced and solidly written slab of death metal that acts as either an entry point into the band/genre as much as it does a point of continuation for longtime listeners. Fans should be eagerly awaiting the next dose of reality from this American quartet -- and you can expect they'll deliver with no shortage of material to cover in the coming years.