Misotheist – De Pinte

Misotheist – De Pinte
Release Date: 20th February 2026
Label: Terratur Possessions
Order CD/ Vinyl
Genre: Dissonant Black Metal
FFO: Whoredom Rife, Deathspell Omega, Svartidauði, Aosoth, Martröð.
Review By: Magnus Rotås

Misotheist is an entity shrouded in mystery, with no one really knowing who’s who or what’s what in the band. I only know as much as that they are from Trondheim, and are fronted by Brage Kråbøl who also has a different project called Enevelde. The rest is more or less a mystery. So if you were wondering whether anyone in the band will be hanging their gown from their pierced nipples to show off on the red carpet, then you probably won’t get to know that at next year’s Grammys, I’m afraid. In other words, this is a band with very little bullshit surrounding them, with no names mentioned in neither the press release nor on the cover of the album. They are all about the music, unapologetically so.

While the main scene of Norwegian black metal has mostly revolved around the country’s two biggest cities Oslo and Bergen – Trondheim has always had an interesting history of bands beginning with Thorns (arguably the first black metal band from Norway) and later with Kaosritual, Mare, Celestian Bloodshed and the wonderful Faustcoven – and today with Whoredom Rife and now also Misotheist really making waves and putting Trondheim back on the black metal map.

De Pinte (“The Tormented” in English) is a maelstrom of whirling guitars and pounding drums, an all out attack and exquisitely extreme in every way. The guitars are very dissonant, creating a very uneasy sound – certainly an acquired taste, and certainly not for everybody. I assure you though that this album has a lot of nuances that really lifts it far and beyond most black metal releases. For one the drums on this album are absolutely fantastic, the drum sound really punches through the thick wall of guitars and sounds absolutely massive, think a less polished John Bonham on When the Levee Breaks mixed with the extremely deep low-end of the bass-drum on Darkthrones Under a Funeral Moon. I don’t think a drummer can get a better compliment than that, really. The drums are also endlessly more interesting than just pure blast beats for 40 minutes straight.

The album is very aggressive in tone, but does also feature several slower, more doomy parts that manage to sound just as powerful and heavy. Kjetterdom (loosely translated to Heresy) is the most doomy track of the bunch and features a fantastic melancholic guitar riff. There is an all-round astonishing level of detail in the music on this album that really rewards repeat listens – thanks to the great production you can actually hear all these details even despite the thick atmosphere that binds it all nicely together.

Fans of the band’s two last albums will instantly like the immediate and hellfire’ish Unanswered Thrice and Blinded and Revealed which feels like a continuation of the style the band has been honing in on, on their last two records. It’s however, the 21-minute title track that is my absolute favorite of them all. Don’t get intimidated by the length, because this is an absolute ripper of a track – from the delicate atmospheric synths in the beginning of the track, to the album’s most nasty riff that closes it, and everything in between. 

Misotheist’s debut showed a band with great potential, but had the production of a demo. Their next two releases were both really great albums, but De Pinte is undoubtedly one step above anything the band has ever done before. In a masterful way they manage to have just enough sense of control in the chaotic whirlwind of wound, just enough control so the music manages to get the hooks in you without losing any of its brutal qualities. 

There is a very oppressive atmosphere on this album, it feels like a demonic beast released after a thousand years under Christian oppression. Norway’s troubled history with Christianity seems to be what fuels Misotheist lyrically, with endless hateful growls directed towards religion and the men who brought this Abrahamic middle eastern religion to Scandinavia by sword and who tried to erase all traces of the culture that preceded it. 

This album feels like it has had so much care and passion put into it in every single aspect of it, even down to the artwork and packaging. This is 43 minutes of sheer black metal excellence and a devotion of real art—performed by world-class musicians who are masters of their craft. There is a lot to discover on this record, and I haven’t even covered half of everything there is to talk about with this album. This is everything I want from a black metal album, and it gets me really excited again for a genre that I have loved for so many years.

(5 / 5)