Australian Post-Punk Trio The Misanthropes Release Second Album “Headlands” — Watch Video for “Running Start”

Forged in the fierce fires of Melbourne in 2021, The Misanthropes roar into existence, a post-punk powerhouse born from the ashes of Love of Diagrams, Sea Scouts, and Sewers. Monika Fikerle commands the drums, Tim Evans thrashes guitar and belts vocals, while Josh Watson lays down basslines that churn and charge. Their sound snarls with post-punk grit, noise rock chaos, and the distorted haze of lo-fi shoegaze, yet beneath those bleak textures lie hooks sharp enough to pierce. Think of late-night lock-ins with Smog’s Bathysphere or the ragged fury of late ‘80s Wipers mixed with mid-2000s Horrors and The Walkmen.

The Misanthropes build a relentless, unyielding wall of sound throughout their sophomore effort, Headlands—drums like rolling thunder, bass that drives with insistent force, and guitars that crash in turbulent waves. Their music surges, stomps, and storms, embodying a density both fierce and forceful, a dark and driven symphony. It is a sound reflective of the current zeitgeist – restless, unsettled, and chaotic.

Opening track Running Start arrives with a wild, surreal video —a montage bursting with a strange, post-apocalyptic vision, echoing the chaos of Mad Max’s wasteland. The band emerges not as themselves but twisted into eerie dystopian paintings, vivid illustrations, and fractured digital collages. It feels disjointed, an unsettling odyssey that seems plucked straight from the murky depths of the subconscious. A restless, nightmarish world unfolds, brimming with half-formed images that taunt and provoke. The bizarre visuals grip the imagination, where familiar forms blur and morph into unsettling echoes. It pulls you into an off-kilter universe, a place of desolation and distorted dreams.

Watch the video for “Running Start” below: