Review: “Remorse of Conscience” by Agenbite Misery

Citing influences from their avant-garde peers like Pyrrhon and Convulsing, New Hampshire trio Agenbite Misery have created an Experimental Blackened Sludge Metal concept album in “Remorse of Conscience” that adapts every chapter of “Ulysses” by James Joyce into a standalone sonic experience. The group unites guitarist Sam Graff and drummer Adam Richards, who have both been longtime collaborators in Under Green Suns and Vicarium with bassist Cam Netland, who previously fronted Coagulate, something which allows all three to partake in the vocals. Behind the scenes the project has been in existence since late 2022 with the album being written over the course of 2023 and recorded in 2024, entirely self-produced by the band with mixing by Eric Sauter (Wretched Abomination, Magnatar, Body Void) and mastering by Brad Boatright (Obituary, Internal Bleeding, Creeping Death).

It only takes one listen through to “Remorse of Conscience” by Agenbite Misery to realise that the band, the three horsemen of the apocalypse, create the kind of sonic abrasions that blur the lines between music and art. They paint the white to grey as they take the words of James Joyce and transmute them into a force with the power of nature, the ability to create and destroy in equal measure while always having the courage of their convictions. The album begins with “Telemachean Echoes“, a burst of violent turbulence in pure Power Violence that brings bands like Full of Hell to mind as the lyrical narrative moves from shame to defiance in furious fashion. A non-traditional structure combined with technical ambition and uniquely dissonant atmosphere then makes “Cascara Sagrada” a totally different experience. Eerie and unsettling, it mirrors the horror of the source material to create something that borders on Doom fuelled Sludge Metal while standing apart from the opening cut with its slightly less violent approach. One of two gargantuan tunes that come close to the fourteen minute mark “A Charitable View Of Temporary Sanity” is a darkly beautiful affair. It moves between ambient textures, minimalist melodies and giant epic Funeral Doom inspired riffs as the lyrical narrative reflection on loss, failure, grief and the finality of death. Crawling to the depths of hell as if severed at the waist, the song drags itself along leaving a trail of blood in its wake, the contrasting moods of the heavier and ambient parts a dark pleasure that will resonate with those who have suffered trauma in their lives. Throat grating caustic screams and violent tempo changes in the final third mimicking the pain and offering a searing catharsis in the process. After those sonic abrasions “Whatness Of Allhorse” makes for another left field move, the band slipping into a Post-Metal Industrial groove with Gothic tinged 80’s synths and deadpan Black Metal styled vocals. The screaming is interrupted by the occasional spoken word moment as the bass rumbles in the background, the abstract nature of the sounds in the second half making the song sound like its part of the soundscape of Blade Runner 2049.

Inspired by Bloom’s argument with a xenophobic Irish nationalist “Bellwether And Swine” returns us to Stoner Sludge Metal riffs and pounding percussion, mocking toxic patriotism in the process. There is an interesting psychedelic haze to this one with all three vocalists taking it in turns to annihilate our ear drums before another spoken word passage. The intoxicating riffs continue into “Circe“, a song with much more of a Black Metal orientation keeping those psychedelic passages in place in the process. A fierce and troubling affair that mimics a journey through the red light district of Dublin, it has powerful almost hypnotic guitars that burn like wire. Offering something of a palate cleanser for the mind the dungeon synth textures of interlude piece “The Twice-Charred Paths Of Musing Disciples” are both eerie and haunting, building towards the second fourteen minute surpassing cut in “Mnesterophonia” nicely. A grand, sprawling piece that breathes in melancholia in spoken word and breathes out toxic fumes with scalding screams, it exposes the juxtapositions of the bands sound and has a soul stirring emotional connection. Misery loves company and if the purpose of this project was to push the listener with sublime complexities as they weave their way through a myriad of sub-genres that wouldn’t otherwise usually be placed together then that mission has been flawlessly accomplished. Immersive and surprisingly captivating, its very easy to get lost in the catacombs of this record [7.5/10]

Track Listing

1. Telemachean Echoes
2. Cascara Sagrada
3. A Charitable View Of Temporary Sanity
4. Whatness Of Allhorse
5. Bellwether And Swine
6. Circe
7. The Twice-Charred Paths Of Musing Disciples
8. Mnesterophonia

“Remorse of Conscience” by Agenbite Misery is out 6th February 2026