Mark Kloeppel of Misery Index Takes the Oath [AUDIO]

The crushing new Misery Index album, The Killing Gods, is out now and guitarist Mark Kloeppel joined me for the June 14 edition of The Oath to talk about the record.

As a long time fan of the band, I was eager to sink my teeth into The Killing Gods and upon first listen, felt it was one of the strongest Misery Index albums to date (if not their best). With a four gap between records, I assumed the band were very selective with the songwriting process this time around and I was right.

"We were very selective and we mulled over every single detail," Kloeppel stated. "We took a lot of time on it."

We don't really just want to wow you with, you know, a bunch of sweeps and blastbeats and things like that. We want to use those devices and build a genuine, catchy song out of it.

Misery Index are as tight, technical and brutal as any Death Metal band in the business, but that doesn't mean they're willing to sacrifice hook for technicality.

"We've always taken a stance of, like, sort of a pop sensibility or rock sensibility when we're writing songs" he said. "We don't really just want to wow you with, you know, a bunch of sweeps and blastbeats and things like that. We want to use those devices and build a genuine, catchy song out of it."

One of the things the band did this time around was take a different lyrical approach and write an album with a common theme.

"We always had in the back of our minds that we wanted to do some kind of like, theme album. Something that had a narrative and a story line," Kloeppel said of the writing process.

As of this writing, Misery Index are gearing up to tour Europe behind The Killing Gods but no North American dates have been announced. Stay up to speed with Misery Index on their official Facebook Page.