The Munsens are often tagged as doom metal from Denver, even by the high foreheads around here (me being one of them). However, as it stands with the band in the present, both of those descriptors are incorrect. The trio are purveyors of material possessing much more depth and many more layers than straight up doom. Acting as a deliberate foil to their stripped down lineup, the band incorporate and synthesize death and black metal, crusty punk rock, shoegaze droning and epic and unfolding sludgy orchestration into the mix on their forthcoming second full-length, Degradation in the Hyperreal portions of which were brought to life in their new homebase of Asbury Park, NJ. The album is set for release on October 24th, but in advance of that date, we’re running a stream of it today as well as some in-depth context and commentary offered by the band which consists of bassist/vocalist Mike Goodwin and his guitarist/vocalist brother Shaun (drummer Graham Wesselhoff took leave shortly after the completion of the album).
Degradation in the Hyperreal by The Munsens
ALBUM NOTES:
“This record was written over a long period of time, which we think worked to its benefit. We have early demos of some of these tracks from around the time we recorded our last album (Unhanded, recorded in March 2018, released February 2019). Other tracks we wrote not long before we entered the studio to record this album between January and March 2024. Though we’d have liked to get the album out sooner, this time enabled us to bring all sorts of interests to bear on this record, and gave us an opportunity to rework and experiment with things in a way we’d not done on previous releases.
“A lot of the variation in sound happened subconsciously with years elapsing between the writing of certain tracks, but we made a more deliberate effort to vary song structures, lengths, and the keys each song was written in. We also wanted to include more than guitar, bass and drums, so we used keys and original soundscapes more on this album than in the past.
“The band was dispersed for much of the time between albums (Michael in California, Shaun and Graham in Colorado), and the distance limited performances to playing in Denver a couple times a year, in addition to a few festivals and small tours. It also limited our song writing and releases. Graham joined the band in 2016 and while we recorded our last full-length together, this album really feels like the culmination of our efforts and interests. It’s faster, more aggressive, more cohesive. When Graham joined, we had an idea of the band we wanted to be and the albums we wanted to make. We took steps toward that vision with our last release but this new album is the truest representation of that sound to date.”
ALBUM ART:
Michael: We wanted a cover that was both different in style from the covers of our previous releases, and distinct from many other metal album covers. I’d recently visited an exhibit that featured Flemish painters, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and I had some of his work in mind, particularly pieces that featured large scenes with many absurd characters, such as The Seven Deadly Sins and The Fall of the Rebel Angels. I think I pulled a few examples from a Bruegel book I had, and Shaun suggested we look at Serhat Alparslan’s work. We all liked this piece for the cover from the jump.
TRACK-BY-TRACK COMMENTARY
“Eternal Grasp”
Shaun: We started writing this one back in 2018 right after we recorded Unhanded and have been playing it in our set for a few years with varying titles. There wasn’t much debate about using it as the first track on the album — it’s a great opener. The title is a metaphor for mental anguish and depression.
“Sacred Ivory”
Michael: We released this song as a single in January of 2023. It offered a look into the new music we were writing and we figured we’d soon follow it up with the full length. ‘Soon’ ended up being fall 2025, but here we are.
“Drauga”
Michael: I came across the Old Persian word “Drauga” in a book and was struck by it. The word itself was intriguing and the meaning, roughly “the lie,” made a fitting title for something I was writing. We’d been jamming this song for a while without vocals, experimenting with arrangement. Sometimes I write lyrics specifically for a song, for others I revisit unpublished writing to find something that I think fits. In this case, it was the latter, and I ended up rewriting the back half of the poem to better fit the structure and cadence I had in mind for the song.
“Scaling Ceauşescu’s Balcony”
Michael: A reimagination of Ceauşescu’s December 1989 speech, one he famously botched, and a paradigmatic example of ruling class disconnect.
“Supreme Death”
Michael: Thematically, I played with an idea spurred by Saramago’s Death at Intervals. This was another one that evolved and took many forms over years. I can remember walking around Colfax and Capitol Hill during the summer of 2020 when Covid had shut the city down, listening to early live recordings of what became this song. We really wanted the crescendos in the back half of the song to land a certain way.
“Vesper”
Shaun: This track is a dedication to someone close to us who took his own life. He was a huge reason my brother and I play music, and I wrote this on one of his acoustic guitars after he passed. It started as the intro to “The Knife,” but eventually took on a life of its own so we split them into separate tracks.
“The Knife”
Shaun: This was the last track we wrote for the album and, like songs often do, it morphed quite a bit as we started to demo it. I love how chaotic it feels — it remains full speed for nearly five minutes, unlike most of our songs that have some kind of breathing room. When writing the lyrics for this song, I was in the middle of dealing with some health issues that brought me back to doctors’ offices and operating rooms many times. Unfortunately, I landed into the hands of, what turned out to be, a shitty surgeon. I’m okay now, but mortality is often on the mind when you’re pushed in and out of consciousness on a gurney and left with messy recoveries. There are so many people who deal with this on a daily basis and don’t get to move past their diagnoses. So this can be a song for them — a chance to tell “the knife” to fuck off.
“I Avow”
Shaun: “I Avow” is the only track recorded outside of Greendoor Recordings. I recorded this one at home in Denver shortly after we finished our studio time. The piano piece is a loose arrangement of something I had written many years ago. I probably did over 50 takes on our semi-tuned piano, jamming it a little differently each time, and ended up choosing the first take. It often seems to work out like that.
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