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CHURCH OF MISERY
Thy Kingdom Scum

Rise Above (2013)
Rating: 8/10

There may have been several incarnations of Japanese doomsters Church Of Misery, but when the music is this wonderfully perverse and heavy, who cares? I’ve been a fan of Church Of Misery since their 2001 full-length debut offering Master Of Brutality; always drawn into their seedy web of serial killer obsession and fuzzed out riffs.

Forget stoner rock, Church Of Misery are unadulterated doom from the tomb, their sound weighed down by the massive sleazy guitar swirls of Ikuma Kawabe and fronted by Hideki Fukasawa, one of several vocalists to take the sordid helm of this gargantuan machine that revels in carnal knowledge and well-soiled basements.

Of all the doom bands doing the rounds, Church Of Misery is without doubt one of the most disturbing, who over the years has glorified the crimes of such sick individuals as Ed Kemper (The Co-ed Killer), Richard Ramirez (The Night Stalker) and Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper).

Fans of such macabre tales won’t be disappointed this time round as B.T.K. (Bind, Torture, Kill) serial murderer Dennis Rader is celebrated in the opening monstrosity of an instrumental, entitled, yep, you guessed it, ‘B.T.K’. Junji Narita’s drums are quite literally some of the biggest and loudest ever put to record as the band ventures on the left hand path.

Sicker still is the ominous sludge of ‘Lambs To The Slaughter’ – which is an ode to British child killers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady (The Moors Murderers) – with the band finding an almost Black Sabbath-esque groove, except for those drooling, indistinguishable vocals.

How anyone can class this type of metal as “stoner” is beyond me. Church Of Misery, accompanied by several film, news and documentary samples, are everyone’s worst nightmare with their punishing percussion and churning riffs.

‘Brother Bishop’ (Gary Heidnik) and the eerie lumber of ‘Cranley Gardens’ (Dennis Andrew Nilsen) are grim rockers featuring some of the best (worst?) lyrics I’ve heard in a long time, made all the more creepy by Fukasawa’s maniacal yawns and founding member Tatsu Mikami’s sinister bass.

And then we’re treated to the ooze of ‘All Hallow’s Eve’ (John Linley Frazier) which is a mix of Tony Iommi’s (Black Sabbath) stormy guitars and foetid grunge-punk, whereas ‘Düsseldorf Monster’, celebrating the crimes of Peter Kürten (The Vampire Of Düsseldorf), is another bastard offspring of Sabbath until it slows the pace and creeps into the room like all those convicted killers combined into one nightmarish creation, with the vocals taking on a Phil Anselmo (Down / Pantera) does death metal sort of painful moan.

Church Of Misery live up to their name, and if you still aren’t full to the brim with all manner of unholy thoughts then check out the cover of ‘One Blind Mice’ – originally released in 1971 by UK progressive rock band Quatermass – with its sci-fi fuzz bass. The track hops along like some late-60s psych-a-go-go until those gargoyle grunts interrupt proceedings.

Thy Kingdom Scum is Church Of Misery’s first full-length record since 2009’s Houses Of The Unholy, and I hope it’s not another four years until the next platter of splatter.

Neil Arnold

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