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CHURCH OF MISERY
Born Under A Mad Sign

Rise Above (2023)
Rating: 9/10

Like a prolific serial killer who suddenly and mysteriously ceased with his vile activities, this clan of psycho psychedelic Japanese doomsters seemed to push the pause button seven years ago. I’d started to think that they had run out of mass murderers and the likes to write about, but now they’ve returned with more seedy tales, this time pertaining to John Allen Muhammed, Fritz Haarmann, Randy Kraft, H.H. Holmes, David Koresh and Robert Hansen.

Church Of Misery has always explored the grim underbelly of crime and applied their distorted, 70s style grooves to such themes. It’s no different with Born Under A Mad Sign, but it still remains captivating. As someone who has an avid interest in serial killers, Church Of Misery provides the perfect soundtrack as at one moment the band transports you to a blistering hot highway where a killers’ victims have been tossed into an overgrown ravine, and the next minute we traipse the snowy wastes of Alaska and then onto the bleak city streets of Hanover.

There is an overwhelming glut of doomy bands probing the late 60s and early 70s heavy psychedelia era but none do it with the authentic and seedy style of Church Of Misery. Tapping into the darker side of humanity, this album sizzles like a sun-burnt corpse frazzled on the highway. The bluesy mid-sections come as expected, as do the churning riffs, but it’s the unexpected track ‘Spoiler’ (a cover of the 70s song by New York City progressive rock combo Haystacks Balboa) which really adds colour to the squalid rolls. It comes across like The Doors but with extra organ swirls and bestial proto-metal attitude.

Serial murderer Randy Kraft’s crimes are covered in the stoned groove of ‘Freeway Madness Boogie’, while Church Of Misery’s coverage of cult leader David Koresh gets the funky treatment on ‘Come And Get Me Sucker’. However, the band really excels in the riff department with the chunky ‘Butcher Baker’ (Robert Hansen).

With its strong fuzzed-up feels, the sordid waves of debauched riffs and a general sneering and depraved atmosphere, the return of Church Of Misery should be lauded like some once buried effigy now rediscovered – or reborn, if you will. A brilliant return then… the killer is back.

Neil Arnold

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