My Own Will’s New EP Is An Intense Presentation

By: Philip Sayblack

Deathcore/death metal band My Own Will released its new EP, Misery this past week.  The four-song record, released Thursday through Bleeding Art Collective and Blood Blast Distribution, is a powerful presentation that fans of the genre will agree is worth hearing at least once.  That is due in part to its featured musical arrangements.  The lyrical content that accompanies the record’s musical presentations makes for its own interest.  The 12-minute record’s production puts the finishing touch to its presentation, making for a fully immersive offering for the band’s established audiences and deathcore fans in general.  Each item noted is important in its own way to the whole of the EP.  All things considered they make Misery an intense presentation that death metal and deathcore fans alike will find worth hearing at least once.
Misery, the brand-new EP from My Own Will, is a powerful new presentation from the band that is certain to leave quite the impression on audiences.  This is proven in part through its musical arrangements.  Over the course of each of its four songs, the record’s musical body is a pummeling musical punch to the gut with hints of Whitechapel, Nile, and Left to Suffer.  This is evidenced through the heavy, crunching down tuned guitars, the familiar guttural screams from front man Dave Keoppen and the equally powerful rhythm section.  From one song to the next there are some subtle changes in the overall approach taken but the overall presentation is largely the same, giving listeners an extremely intense listening experience.
Looking at the record’s lyrical content, it is just as intense as the EP’s musical presentation.  That is proven right from the EP’s outset in the EP’s title track.  What audiences get here is the look inside the mind of someone who has been pushed so far that they have become homicidal…at least (hopefully) in their own mind.  The subject’s mindset is unsettling as Keoppen screams, “With nowhere left to go/I can’t call this my home/Cruelty and savagery prevent that I’m alone/My murderous intent/Claws its way inside/My bloodlust can’t be satisfied/You’ve nowhere left to hide/There’s nowhere left to run/The uncertainty of life/I promise you/I want to spill your blood.”  Things do not get any less violent from here.  From there the subject goes on to address releasing inner demons, etc.  It is a heavy statement overall that on one level leaves one hoping Keoppen is addressing perhaps something bad that has happened at the hands of a family member.  Either way, this is certainly an intense presentation.
Actually that inner anger is a theme that crosses all four of the songs that make up this EP.  In ‘Phobos,’ for instance, the subject speaks of that anger and hatred boiling “below the surface of sanity” and of fighting voices in one’s head.  In other words, perhaps this is a mental health struggle discussion. 
Even in ‘Rorschach,’ the EP’s second entry, there is that battle with self, or so it would seem.  As the subject states, “Freed from this f****** prison/My flesh has become a vessel/I am to cleanse the Earth.”  From here the subject goes on to add, “This can’t be happening/Your delusional fallacy/I’m not trapped here with you/It’s YOU that’s trapped with ME.”  Having no background on this song, this and the rest of the song’s content is definitely intense in its own way, especially as Koeppen notes from the song’s subject from the song’s outset, “Trapped in my body and mind/The noose is tightening/My conscience is weak/Retribution I seek.”  Again, there is a lot of room left for interpretation here.  When this lyrical intensity of this song and the other examined is considered in whole, it makes for even more impact for listeners, needless to say.  When the overall lyrical presentation herein is considered alongside the EP’s equally impacting musical arrangement, the whole shows even more why the record’s targeted audiences will find it worth hearing at least once.
Rounding out the most important of the EP’s elements is its production.  It has already been noted that the album’s musical body is something truly intense.  It is not for the faint of heart.  The production thereof is to thank for that massive wall of sound in every arrangement herein.  From every pummeling drum beat to every crunching guitar riff to every scream and even the intense low end from the bass, every performance here is expertly balanced.  The result therein is a musical presentation that completely immerses listeners and for which audiences must certainly prepare themselves.  Keeping that in mind, the production of Misery proves just as important to its presentation as its overall content.  All things combined they make Misery a presentation that will certainly appeal to My Own Will’s established audiences and to some extent to more casual listeners.
Misery is available now.  More information on Misery is available along with all of My Own Will’s latest news at Facebook.