Monument of Misanthropy Interview (George Wilfinger 2024)

Monument of Misanthropy is a band that initially started internationally with members in various parts of Europe, their first album “Anger Mismanagement” (2014) was a Brutal Death Metal album in the most classic vein, and many people from those years spoke wonders of that album and I even remember that it was reprinted a couple of times and the album was completely sold out. That’s why Brutal Mind’s Indonesian label reissued it in 2022 for those who didn’t have their copies, and it was a success because Deni told me that they sold almost all the copies. So, with this idea, their second production “Unterweger” (2021) was a tremendous album on a general level, but without that brutal idea in the rhythms, but with a leaning towards the style of Benighted, Cattle Decapitation and a bit of Aborted in some ways, where the band leaned completely towards the Death Metal side at that time of faster sides. Now after 3 years, we have their third production called “Vile Postmortem Irrumatio” under the tutelage of Transcending Obscurity Records.

Para leer la entrevista en español: Entrevista a Monument of Misanthropy 

Metallerium: Welcome George to the pages of Metallerium, it is a tremendous pleasure to talk with you about Monument of Misanthropy, this new album "Vile Postmortem Irrumatio" and many other things related to the metal world. We'll start by asking, how are you? How was the band in recent years?  

Monument of Misanthropy: Hi there Metallerium! It’s our pleasure and an honor to talk to you guys! You’re doing a great job!  Well concerning your question: Now we’re busy gearing up for our Eastern & South-Eastern European tour with Belphegor and Malevolent Creation, which kicks off next week on Sept. 05th at the Proxima in Warsaw, Poland running through Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia down to Greece and Croatia this time.   The last years have been turbulent but also extremely successful for us. Winning new fans and meeting new friends everywhere we go and play. It’s the reward for the hard work and effort we put into creating the albums.  

Metallerium: You've been around for a little over 10 years and already have 4 albums, a live album, and an EP. As a relatively young band, what inspires you to create new music and bet on new releases in a digital age where you have hundreds of bands releasing albums every week, so there is a lot of competition? Do you feel like you must compete with a lot of bands? What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?  

Monument of Misanthropy: To be honest it’s the music that keeps me going. There are so many amazing young musicians out there with incredible talents and aspirations, that are making it easy for me to keep the MoM train running like a well-oiled killing machine. I have so many sick ideas for new stories to be told embedded in our brutal death metal musical way, that we never run out of new challenging concepts we want to bring to life.   I’m a kind of workaholic. Once an album is completed, I’m already researching for the next album to come. And it’s not competition that ever enters our world. The only thing that matters in the music business is persistence. Don’t look left or right, just keep going and don’t care what others say, if your gut feelings tell you what you do is good. And that’s already my advice to aspiring musicians.   And, if you have the feeling someone’s slowing you down or even worse, is a backstabbing liar, just get rid of him/them. No second chances. When someone lets you down once, they will do it all the time. Get rid of the dead weight and toxic elements as fast as possible.  

Metallerium: Talking a bit more of this "Vile Postmortem Irrumatio". When did you start writing songs for this new album? Are all the songs new or did you rescue any compositions that were left out of previous albums?  

Monument of Misanthropy:  We started with the new album in 2022, and at that time we also decided to have some new live backup musicians for touring. That’s when we first met Julius Kössler and I asked him if he would also compose some tracks for the new MoM album because the other members were tied up with work and studying for the university.  And I was so blown away by Julius’ stuff that we just kept going doing one track after the other. It was like we were in a flow that never stopped, and in the end, he had composed ¾ of the album. The first two tracks of the album are by Paul (ex-bassist) and the 3rd one by Shoi (ex-guitarist), but the rest is all Julius’ work.   So, no leftovers from any previous albums. All shiny and new stuff.  

Metallerium: Many bands and musicians see each album as a child, each one special in its way. It's a bit of a cliché to say that each new release is the band's best, but do you consider this fourth album your best work to date? If so, what are the reasons that make this your best album?  

Monument of Misanthropy: I think every band does the best with each album. I mean it’s not like with the bands in the last century, where band members stay the same almost over their whole life-spanning careers. Nowadays band's lineups change and with that also their abilities and inspirations. I mean with the first MoM lineup the current album would have been far out of reach, concerning technicality and versatility. So, it’s not a baby to me, it’s more like how to tell the MoM-thing in a very new way with each album. It’s like inventing yourself new with every new chapter. The aim is, to be more disturbing and sickening, without becoming dull and foreseeable.   I wanna stay entertained and challenged by our new stuff myself. Because it’s us on stage that must play the tracks live many hundred times.   If we get bored playing our tracks it would be worse and it would show.  

Metallerium: I remember when we talked in 2021 about the release of "Unterweger" (2021), and at that time the cover of that album with the first one, had a more curious concept for the fans with the concept of the murderer, but now with "Vile Postmortem Irrumatio" things are much more direct. So, why did you decide to make things more direct regarding the concept of serial killers? And will the mascot from the first album return at some point for subsequent productions? 

Monument of Misanthropy:  In the early days, we collaborated with Remy Cuveillier of Headsplit Design in Paris, who was the ideal artist for our first three album covers. For our initial releases, Anger Mismanagement and Capital Punisher, the Monument of Misanthropy was portrayed as a Lovecraftian, Cthulhu-like creature representing the destruction of humanity. When we began our serial killer trilogy (yes, there’s one more to come) with Unterweger, we opted for a more subtle visual style, depicting the female victim and her killer in a more abstract, almost expressionistic manner reminiscent of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.  Then we discovered Andriy Tkalenko of Daemorph Art and immediately knew he was the right choice for our current album. We wanted to not only raise the stakes musically and lyrically but also visually with the album cover. The leap in brutality began with the design for our Demon of Graz T-shirt, created by Artmorfate Art. The shirt featured the words "Hunt – Kill – Fuck – Repeat" on the back, and it sold out so quickly that we had to do a reprint after the tour… (laughs).   For Vile Postmortem Irrumatio and the Ed Kemper concept, Tkalenko was the ideal choice. The album cover perfectly captures the disturbing imagery I associate with Kemper, particularly the bizarre scenario he once described in an interview. We even recreated that chilling moment in the album’s intro, “First Time It Makes You Sick to the Stomach,” which transitions into the opening track, “How to Make a Killer. So, it’s also part of this inventing-yourself new thing if you like and not becoming predictable.   But maybe the mascot will come back after the serial killer trilogy. One never knows… [laughs]  

Metallerium: How do you feel the reception of your fans and the press to this new album has been so far? What have the reviews been like? Do you usually read reviews or criticism that are uploaded online and how do you take it?  

Monument of Misanthropy: So far, the reviews have been extremely positive, and we also noticed a big leap in new followers and a huge jump in the streaming numbers on all platforms. So, I think we did it just right.  And yes, I also read the critics. But it’s nothing I let get to my head. It’s nice to read to get appreciated. But we would do what we do even if somebody thinks it’s not good.  

Metallerium: What are the promotional plans for "Vile Postmortem Irrumatio"? And what will the band's live performances be like? Perhaps you will embark on tours, more videos will be released. Who knows?  

Monument of Misanthropy: Yes, as I’ve already mentioned in the beginning, we’re touring this fall and aim to play a summer tour run in 2025. And with the big help from our booking agency The Flaming Arts, this should be quite possible.  And a new video is surely on our to-do list as well. Maybe we will start a Kickstarter campaign for a second Kemper video end of the year, to fund the clip.  

Metallerium: It is normal in our times that we are living in an era of nostalgia, an era of second or third parts within the entertainment field in general. There are remasters, re-recordings, and sequels of many things. So, do you think it is good for the entertainment industry to keep pushing the same sources of energy? Or do you think that art in all its expressions should be creating new things for the next generations? 

Monument of Misanthropy: I never liked the concept of squeezing money from fans by doing Part IIs and IIIs to infinity. On the other hand, people sometimes want to see a great idea or story to be continued. Like the Aliens saga for example or Halloween. The thing is that some stories can be retold or continued more intensely after let’s say 20 years, using new technologies, better cameras, animation possibilities, etc. So yes, sometimes it does make sense. Same in the music industry, if an album is sold out as a vinyl and there’s a public demand for it, why not?  The only problem is these days the big companies may back only their winning horses and forget to build up new winning teams. But in times of crises, it’s also understandable to some extent.  

Metallerium: As I mentioned in the first question, talking about all kinds of topics within metal, as you can see, is a word that has appeared since Necrophagist appeared in the world with their last album. Many people say that there is technical brutal metal, technical, I don't know, technical progressive, this kind of stuff. But as far as I can remember, since I first heard Suffocation, Broken Hope, Cryptopsy, this kind of music has always been brutal death metal. I don't know why people or critics say that it is a technical and brutal death metal with a lot of things there. So, for you, what exactly is the conception of technical work when normally brutal death metal or extreme metal is always technical? 

Monument of Misanthropy: I guess it’s because some reviewers/labels etc. want to emphasize some special aspects of a band. It looks like many listeners do have very special interests and tastes in music and need to know what exactly is to be expected from a band. The word technical may underline the fact, that it’s not just brutal slamming caveman riffs that are being played, but maybe a group of musicians with a higher level of musicality and deeper knowledge of what they are doing.   And like with the progress of technical possibilities in movies, also the equipment especially thinking of drums, has evolved dramatically with better foot machines and so on. Plus of course, musicians don’t start with “Smoke on the Water” anymore but want to play “Stabwound” as soon as possible. This of course leads to a bigger pool of highly gifted extreme metal guitarists/bassists who can play always more insane sweeps and riffs, leaving us all blown away by their ingenuity.  

Metallerium: Speaking about one thing about Brutal Death metal in general, all these intro tracks, speaking as Mortician in the 90s, included a lot of intros from Italian movies, Italian horror movies, etc. And as a curious fact, it's strange that almost everything in this kind of music, all musicians or fans like me or this musical style of Brutal Death Metal are always related to this kind of underground movies with a world of horror, terror, I don't know, many things, many things. So, how do you see this detail of bands and fans who have this predilection for these horror movies, serial killers from the 70s and 80s? Do you think we have something wrong in our heads or our blood, guts, etc? 

Monument of Misanthropy: haha [laughs] Well no. I think it’s a widespread fascination we’re dealing with here. True-crime documentaries and serial-killer series have fans far beyond the metal community and have a far bigger audience. It’s not a coincidence why Netflix and all the other platforms are spending millions of $ dollars to make their series on these topics.   But why are people so obsessed with true crime and serial killers I think it’s the fascination with the sheer evil and unimaginable brutality that humans are capable of—the darkness that all “sane” individuals try to keep in check. Let’s be honest, we’ve all had that moment where we thought, or even yelled out loud, “I’m going to kill that bastard,” whether it was aimed at a parent, boss, your ex, or some schoolyard bully.   The urge to think about and even want to kill is ingrained in us. Once we recognize that, it becomes easier to manage—assuming we’re honest with our innermost selves. The truth is anyone can kill given the right circumstances. Why wouldn’t we be? Every other living creature can kill, even carnivorous plants, so why not humans?   So, it’s like looking into the mirror and seeing what we would be able to do, and that frightens us but also fascinates us in a creepy obviously.  

Metallerium: Well George, we come to the sad moment of this interview, I hope you enjoyed this interview as I did and thank you very much for your time. "Vile Postmortem Irrumatio” is a tremendous album from the band. Maybe you have something to add to your Latin fans and Metallerium followers. 

Monument of Misanthropy: Well, thank you so much, Javier, it was of course my pleasure too, as always. And since I have the possibility here, I would like to greet all the many death metal fans we have from the Latin American hordes! We see you all looking at our streaming statistics. You’re a large and strong community within the metal family worldwide, and we hope to be able to come to play for you someday too! Stay strong and brutal listening to “Vile Postmortem Irrumatio”. Brutal music for brutal times, as always! See you soon hopefully!