With Live In Munich, Misery Index have bestowed upon us little more than the opportunity to recreate the Misery Index gig experience in our very own homes. So, after setting up an ersatz venue in the biggest room in your house and inviting a bunch of predominantly male death metal maniacs to your place, you can press play and proceed to smash the shit out of your much-loved abode. That is, of course, unless you happen to find yourself standing behind the guy that’s taller than everyone else. Nope? Just me then…
Anyway, for those unfamiliar with the codes of an extreme metal gig, vocalist Jason Netherton’s between-song banter will ensure that this experience reaches its full potential. He does have a way with words so it’s perhaps best to explore his, erm, “poetic” penchant. So for instance, when he insists that we “keep this shit going!” between opening tracks ‘Sleeping Giants’ and ‘The Carrion Call’ he’s using a metaphor. What he means is that the band will be maintaining the show’s rapid momentum throughout the set and you are duty-bound to keep up. Got it? Okay, good, because later, just before ‘The Great Depression’, he repeats this imperative once more, this time affixing the vulgar noun, “motherfucker”. This does not mean – and I want to be absolutely clear on this – that you have to fuck your mother… well, unless you want to. Live and let live and all that.
With ‘The 7th Cavalry’s imperative to “Headbang your god damn face off!” and that he wants to see “everybody fucking headbanging” to the “fucking ripper” ‘The Illuminaught’, I think by know it’s fairly clear that we shouldn’t take everything he says literally. So when he bellows “Let’s get this circle pit going motherfucker, old school style. I wanna see this fucking place erupt. No more fucking standing around, no more free fucking passes,” you should be on the same wavelength. But let’s not mistake his aggressive idiolect as evidence that he is completely disturbed because he can be polite too. With closing track ‘Traitors’, he begins with an open and honest statement about his desire to “see everyone in the fucking room screaming along with this one,” and quickly follows it with a courteous request, asking “Can you do that for me?” A consummate and considerate showman I think you’ll agree.
Misery Index usually take three years between full length filling the gaps with EPs or splits, so we’re due another release pretty soon. A live DVD could have been an option, but who’d pay the asking price for a thirty minute show? With Heirs to Thievery released in 2010, this is a gap filler, not necessarily a bad one, but most will happily wait for the next studio album…
6/10
Jason Guest