New Hampshire experimental metal trio Agenbite Misery’s debut album, Remorse Of Conscience—releasing Friday, Feb. 6–is a concept record of eight compositions, themed and inspired by James Joyce’s 1922, stream-of-conscious, 900-page novel Ulysses.
In this interview, Sam Graff (vocals, guitars, synths) goes behind-the-scenes to fully detail the upcoming concept album, songs and videos, discusses authors and books, tour collaboration wishes, ambitions for the rest of the year.
What is it about the Ulysses’ novel that appealed to you enough to release your debut album [Remorse Of Conscience] as a concept record reflecting on or paying homage to James Joyce’s literary work?
There are a lot of things about Ulysses, and about Joyce in general, that really pulled us in. The novel is completely one of a kind.
It’s full of beautiful, evocative prose, but at the same time, it’s deeply concerned with everyday life in a way that very few books are.
In metal, there are endless albums about Tolkien-style fantasy or war, and even literary metal records, like those inspired by Moby-Dick, are still working with stories that already feel pretty “metal.”
What excited us about Ulysses was the idea of making a metal album based on a book that’s mostly about a normal guy walking around a city for a day.
That’s obviously simplifying things, but one of the reasons Ulysses is so endlessly engaging, is how much emotional weight and striking imagery Joyce packs into even the most mundane moments.
On our song “Cascara Sagrada,” for example, we took a chapter that’s literally about the main character making breakfast and using the bathroom, and turned it into this discordant death metal track that still has lyrics that feel intense and heavy.
There’s something both funny and exciting about that contrast, and it’s the kind of thing that really only works with Joyce.
We’re also just big Joyce fans in general.
When I met our bassist Cam a few years ago, our shared experience with Ulysses was actually part of what we bonded over, because not many younger readers take on that book on their own anymore.
On top of that, there’s a real challenge in trying to translate a massive, complex text like Ulysses into an album, and that challenge gave us a lot to dig into creatively.
When writing this, did the lyrics come first or the music? Or a bit of both?
A bit of both I guess.
Each song on Remorse Of Conscience is based on a different chapter from Ulysses, with every lyric being pulled directly from the text.
We began every track by focusing on the main feeling that the chapter gave us, then built the song around that emotion.
For example, our song “A Charitable View of Temporary Insanity” is inspired by the “Hades” chapter, where the main character attends a funeral and mourns the loss of his son.
We zeroed in on that sense of loss and grief and turned it into a longer, funeral-doom–influenced piece, with rises and falls meant to capture that emotional weight.
Once the instrumental was finished, we went back to the text and picked out lines we found especially powerful or interesting, then worked them into the song in a way that felt natural.
That was basically our approach for the whole record: start with the feeling of the text, shape the music around it, and then pull in lyrics from the book that fit the song.
What do you hope listeners take away from Remorse Of Conscience after listening? How do you hope the band is defined?
Our main hope is that listeners feel an emotional connection to the album, or at least come away feeling affected by it.
Ulysses is an incredibly powerful book for us, and over the years we’ve all had meaningful experiences with art that really stayed with us.
At a more aspirational level, the goal of this project was to capture some of the impact of the book and translate it into a modern context—something that could spark similar feelings for our listeners.
On a more practical note, I’d also just be happy if fans of avant-garde sounds and metal think we wrote some cool songs.
I definitely don’t want anyone to feel like they need to read one of the most challenging books in the English language to enjoy the album!
Ideally, we’re defined by our willingness to blend different metal styles in service of a larger concept.
What other story(ies) or book(s) are some of your favorites and why?
I’m a big fan William Faulkner and his novel Abaslom, Absalom! is my favorite of his.
It’s a stunning indictment of American mythmaking, delivered in evocative and verbose stream-of-consciousness prose with vivid characters.
A bit cliche, but Infinite Jest by David Foster Walalce is one of the most emotionally resonant works of art I’ve read.
It’s simultaneously funny, surreal, prescient and features moments of intense humanity.
For less “literary” stuff, I’m a big fan of the Irish mystery author Tana French, who crafts these incredibly sad, but thrilling whodunnits that are a blast to read.
I’ve been working my way through the works of the web series author Wildbow recently, and his low fantasy series Pale is one of the best things I’ve ever read in the style.
If you could tour with any band(s), who would that be and why them?
There are so many American bands who are well known within the underground like Pyrrhon, Suffering Hour, or Primitive Man, who are all super influential to our sound and who we’d love to play with, but if there’s any one artist it would probably be Imperial Triumphant.
Not only are they incredible musicians who’ve released some of our favorite records in recent years, but they have such a vivid and three-dimensional grasp of their concept that shapes everything they do.
Few bands achieve that level of cohesion of vision and that’s something we really respect.
After the album’s released, what are your plans and goals?
We’ll be touring and playing some shows to promote the album, which will be fun.
Then, we’ll be working on finishing up some music videos for the rest of the album tracks so we can put up a full album video on YouTube.
After that, we’ll be putting the finishing touches on our second album and gearing up for the release cycle for that.
We also have a collaborative album in the works which we’re excited about.
A lot of our immediate goals sort of hinge on the album’s release and how that goes.
We’re focused on writing and making more music that we’re proud of and just getting the art in front of people.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’ll do a quick shoutout to the series of music videos we’ve made so far for our released singles.
Each of them was done as loose adaptations of the chapters they cover from Ulysses, done in the style of early ‘20s era film.
I’m really proud of how they turned out as entirely DIY affairs and they at least provide some cool imagery to ground the music in.
Aside from that, just a genuine thank you to everyone who’s reading or listening. It means the world to us and we appreciate it immensely.
Get Remorse Of Conscience
https://agenbitemisery.com/shop/
Watch “Circe”
Watch “Cascara Sagrada”
Watch “A Charitable View...”
Watch “Whatness Of Allhorse”
Watch “Bellwether And Swine”
Connect With Agenbite Misery
Bandcamp: https://agenbitemisery.bandcamp
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agenbite
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist
Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/agen
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@agenbite.misery
Ampwall: https://agenbitemisery.ampwall.com/
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