Ready for a fresh chapter in The Gloom In The Corner‘s mythology? Released last week, the Melbourne quintet have revealed “Misanthropic”. The new track and music video musically and lyrically take us deeper into the tale of the fable’s bad guy: Sherlock Bones.
With The Gloom In The Corner’s previous single “Villain”, we were introduced to Sherlock Bones, and told of the connection between him and Clara Carne (with the two referred to in the song’s final line: “The Devil Of The Sect and The Queen Of Misanthropy”). Though “Villain” was a formal introduction, Sherlock isn’t new on the scene. He had operated alongside the main character of The Gloom In The Corner’s story; Jay.
Overcome with The Gloom (The Gloom: A supernatural disease and oppressive entity that seeks to ‘inhabit’ the vulnerable) after the death of his girlfriend, Jay committed murders to avenge her along with Sherlock. Where we left off at the end of “Villain” was with Sherlock poking at Jay’s wound of grief, leaving the way open for a backstory to come.
“They call me Sherlock Bones, Hellhound for the Devil’s Throne.
I’ll kill every last one of you if it means I feel something.”
“Misanthropic” takes us into Sherlock’s history/story and starts to explain how he got to be how he is. With no connection to a family, nor belief in anything beyond himself, having a misanthropic perspective of the world seems to be a given. The song touches on past chapters, including the visual representation of the lyric “We stand in the pouring rain / With blood pooling at my feet” from “Oxymoron”. Clara is held against the wall in the video by Sherlock, demonstrating how he’d have handled that situation that Jay/The Gloom was in. Sherlock also mocks the concept of belief in a higher power, and dives grotesquely in to Jay’s lover’s death. As we’ve come to expect, the signature “God abandoned me” line is also scrawled into the track, which is a cheap shot at Jay (and Fear Me) courtesy of Sherlock.
With a blend of heavy intensity and a sense of bouncing cockiness, “Misanthropic” is a syllable-packed experience, which should come coupled with a dive into the lyrics to get the most out of it. It’s the soundtrack to ‘The Sherlock Bones show’, and listeners are to sit down and shut up and take in his warped perspective of life, where he brags about his heartlessness and evil accomplishments with thunderousness and stuttering riffs. We hear gang vocals of ‘the choir’ reinforcing the dark leader, and we shift between the discomfort of inevitable horrors or the self-applauding presentation of confidence.
There’s a lot to take in with “Misanthropic”, which will feature on the band’s upcoming second EP; Flesh & Bones, planned for release next month. Check out the video below which was directed and edited by Colin Jeffs at Ten of Swords Media and Martin Wood. You can also hear it live when The Gloom In The Corner hit the Workers Club for the Misanthropic Launch Show on 11th May, with Advocates, 23/19, Anticline, and Vatic, or at Enigma Bar in Adelaide on 17th May, with Temple Of Athena, Mauvais, Ovtsider, and Relapse.
