PATRIARCHY – Manual for Dying

RELEASE YEAR: 2025
BAND URL: https://patriarchy.bandcamp.com/album/manual-for-dying-2

Hot on the heels of their wicked live album (namely Suffer with Me) released earlier this year comes this riveting new studio offering, which sports the brilliant title Manual for Dying, and the disc is nothing if not consistent, cohesive, and mesmeric. Its ten sharp and memorable tracks represent the very best of the outfit’s recorded work to date and perfectly encapsulate what Patriarchy is all about. To these ears, the record marks a high point in their career and a standout moment in the outfit’s discography – as simple as that, really.  

From the pulsating throes of catchy opener “Boy on a Leash” to the dark, climactic finale “One Last Time,” we are guided expertly through a warped universe in which lust, desire, pain, death, and domination all seem to play a prominent role. Hard and stabbing guitars, diverse and impassioned vocals, claustrophobic and bottomless soundscapes, and hooks aplenty are all over this trippy and original slice of electronic madness, and the group’s playful mixture of darkwave, industrial rock, synth pop, and arguably even (dance) club music is unlike anything that this scribe has encountered before or elsewhere.

With the words and music working in splendid tandem and the production highlighting all the layers and textures of the compositions in a near-flawless manner, Manual for Dying is a transfixing experience and a perversely entertaining listen when one finds oneself in the right frame of mind to absorb and digest its intense (and intensely dark and brooding) content. Forward-thinking stuff in many respects!