Hour Of Penance: Pay the Price, or Drown in Steel!

Italia. Home of fine food and finer wine, birthplace of the Renaissance, and one of Europe’s unlikely key scenes for hyper-technical, utterly brutalising death metal. Though the underground scene is in full strength, there is a triumvirate at the top of the Italian death metal scene, each of whom have or will be unleashing a new chapter of sonic violence in 2019. May saw the incredible career highlight record from scene leaders FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, Veleno; November will see HIDEOUS DIVINITY release their Century Media Records debut Simulacrum; and sandwiched between the two, the longest running band of the trinity, HOUR OF PENANCE are set to jump to the next stage of their career with Misotheism, their debut album with Agonia Records after leaving Prosthetic Records in the Cast The First Stone album cycle.

“I actually knew Agonia Records because we worked together with MALFITOR, a black metal band I had some time ago, and also with ABORYM, another band I played in until a few years ago. I’ve always appreciated how Agonia worked and this time we wanted to have a label who was attentive towards the band, and focused on promotion.” Explains HOUR OF PENANCE frontman Paolo Pieri on the move from Prosthetic Records. “We felt more motivated by having a new label that was giving us the attention we needed to go on, because we felt just after three albums with Prosthetic, we weren’t growing. We’re not doing something more like we should. I think having Agonia working with us gave us the will to do better with ever detail.”

And a new record label isn’t the only change the band has made for Misotheism. “I wanted to do something different from before, because we focused a lot on religion. We had, obviously, Christianity because we are from Italy. In the last album [Cast The First Stone, 2017], we also focused on the conflict between Islam and Christianity, and right now, I felt the need to talk about something more factual.” Offers Pieri, telling of the new lyrical direction. “The world is going towards having a lot of poor people and very few rich people with all the wealth in the word, and they can do whatever they want. This is something that needs to change. That’s the main theme, this fight between the ones who are becoming poorer, and it was the ones who own everything and have the power to do whatever they want with our lives.”

For a band in a genre so obsessed with the fantastical elements of horror, history and mythology, that is a surprisingly punky attitude to take. But while this may be the overarching theme of Misotheism and new territory for HOUR OF PENANCE to explore, Pieri says the band remain true to the style of lyricism they have had since Sedition. “It’s still very metaphorical. It’s a fantasy world, but if you read between the lines you can read between the lines. If people take the time to read the lyrics, they will get more of the meaning from this album.”

The cover art for Misotheism is the perfect example for this blend of real world themes in a fantasy setting. “The tower is a symbol for the ones who stand above the others, who live above the others, with everyone else below.” Pieri explains on the concept behind the art work. “Inside the tower there are those in power who only do their own bidding… You see corpses, crucified people and all these almost-dead people going inside the tower to become [one of those in power].”

Not only have the quartet upped their songwriting game considerably, focusing more on hooks and a blackened atmosphere than just bludgeoning brutality for forty minutes, but they took the album production to the next level as well, splitting the recording, mixing and mastering between three difference studios.

“This is was because we wanted to do better on the sound of the album. We felt we had reached a glass ceiling and needed to do something more. We started doing the drums in a studio for pop music [Bloom Recording Studio] and got the best sounding drums we could have. Then we recorded everything else at Kick Recording Studio, where we recorded the last two albums.” Pieri states on the recording process of Misotheism. “We decided to do the mix and master at Hertz Studios in Poland, the guys who did VADER, BEHEMOTH, DECAPITATED and a lot of really good stuff that we’re into. They really did great work in improving the album in a very big way, actually. I think a lot of the reasons why this album is so good is because of the work they did.”

Armed with a record label that seems to get HOUR OF PENANCE‘s vision, a new thematic direction, and the best production of their career it’s clear that Pieri and co. were more determined than ever to make Misotheism their strongest record to date. And they may just have succeeded. Misotheism is a masterclass in European brutality.

Misotheism is out now via Agonia Records. 

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