New Hampshire experimental extreme-metal trio AGENBITE MISERY have unveiled “Circe,” the latest single from their forthcoming debut album Remorse of Conscience, due out February 6, 2026.
A more direct black metal track filtered through a psychedelic, exploratory lens, “Circe” adapts the fifteenth chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, the infamous “Nighttown” episode, into sound. In the novel, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus drift drunkenly through Dublin’s red-light district as the chapter dissolves into a feverish hallucination filled with nightmares, guilt, satire, and fleeting grace. AGENBITE MISERY translate this dream logic into music built from hypnotic, undulating riffs that blur structure and sensation, leaving the listener suspended in a disorienting haze.
Rhythmically, the song is deliberately unstable, simultaneously implying both 4 and 6 feels as guitar, bass, and drums suggest conflicting patterns. Arpeggiated chords float over exotic drum figures before collapsing into tremolo-picked, unresolved progressions that nod toward acts like Deathspell Omega. The trance fractures at key moments. Ascending organ lines usher in a shout-along, almost hardcore-tinged chorus driven by skank beats and pick scrapes, while two contrasting guitar solos, one sinister and galloping, the other melodic and angular with an Opeth-inspired edge, cut through the fog. The track ultimately returns to its central riff in a subdued, atmospheric form, mirroring the emotional comedown after a long night of intoxication.
Lyrically, “Circe” draws directly from Joyce’s text, favoring vivid imagery and dark humor over linear narrative. Lines evoke Dublin’s nocturnal landscape dissolving into pastoral hallucinations, robed figures speaking in many tongues, Bloom’s self-lacerating fantasies, and Stephen’s haunted psyche. The song closes on one of the novel’s most poignant moments, Bloom’s vision of the ghostly son he never had, a fragile reminder of humanity and perseverance amid the chaos.
Remorse of Conscience adapts Ulysses into eight aggressive, atmospheric compositions that merge blackened sludge, dissonant death metal, post-punk, and ambient drone. Written in 2023 and recorded in 2024, the album was self-produced by the band, mixed by Eric Sauter, and mastered by Brad Boatright. While steeped in dense literary reference, the record ultimately reaches beyond academia toward the raw human experience at its core, confronting the question of whether meaning can still be found amid modern ruin. AGENBITE MISERY’s answer is unambiguous. Yes.
In support of the album, AGENBITE MISERY will embark on a four-date Northeastern tour this February:
- February 5 – Blue, Portland ME (with ERGI, INGRATE, BÜZEM)
- February 6 – Riverhill Grange, Concord NH (with IMIPOLEX, BENEATH PURGATORY, PERFECT SUFFERING)
- February 7 – AS220, Providence RI (with RHIZARIA, CAREGIVER, SATAN WEED)
- February 8 – O’Brien’s, Allston MA (with NORTH STAR THE WANDERER, GLOOMLURKER, HEXROT)
For fans of uncompromising extreme metal, literary ambition, and emotionally unflinching soundscapes, “Circe” stands as a harrowing and hypnotic statement of intent from one of New England’s most singular new acts.
About AGENBITE MISERY:
AGENBITE MISERY is a New Hampshire-based trio that fuses literary ambition with the visceral force of experimental metal. Formed in 2022 by guitarist Sam Graff, bassist Cam Netland, and drummer Adam Richards, the band emerged from a shared academic background in literature and a mutual devotion to the most extreme and boundary-pushing corners of heavy music.
At its core, AGENBITE MISERY is a project rooted in transformation. Their work doesn’t merely incorporate influences, it dismantles them, reshapes them, and recontextualizes them within a vision that is as cerebral as it is punishing. Their sound weaves together elements of black metal, sludge, death metal, post-punk, ambient, and noise rock, unified not by style but by intent: to confront, to immerse, and to challenge.
Individually, the members bring a history of musical experimentation: Sam Graff and Adam Richards were longtime collaborators in the avant-garde project UNDER GREEN SUNS and the Boston metalcore outfit VICARIUM, while Cam Netland previously fronted the Connecticut stoner/black metal band COAGULATE. Together, they’ve forged something entirely distinct, a collective voice that draws from their diverse histories but refuses to be defined by any one genre or scene.
AGENBITE MISERY exists at the edge of metal and the margins of modern art, translating abstract ideas into concrete sound with unrelenting force. Whether performing live or recording in isolation, their ethos remains constant: dig deeper, aim higher, and never repeat what has already been done.
AGENBITE MISERY is:
Sam Graff – Guitars / Vocals / Synth
Cam Netland – Bass / Vocals
Adam Richards – Drums / Vocals
Connect with AGENBITE MISERY:
Bandcamp: https://agenbitemisery.bandcamp.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574211514876#
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agenbitemisery/?hl=en
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwjOZilhkqTRkZHpJJwlbhw
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6dYQgCtNvpvNWwfQ06LQQZ
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/agenbite-misery/1716987132
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@agenbite.misery
Ampwall: https://agenbitemisery.ampwall.com/
Remorse of Conscience Track Listing:
- Telemachean Echoes
- Cascara Sagrada
- A Charitable View Of Temporary Sanity
- Whatness Of Allhorse
- Bellwether And Swine
- Circe
- The Twice-Charred Paths Of Musing Disciples
- Mnesterophonia