The casual obscenities of ?The Hill? are not for shock value. Rather they seem to come from the same jaundiced lessons on love and trust that we all go through. Sardonic and knowing they are, and the tunes here are delivered jittery, semi-spoken word. When vocalist Steve Beyerink mumbles ?All people are animals to me,? you know he is not bullshitting. With rhetorical weapons like schendenfreude and active plans for revenge, Beyerink forces you into a tight corner to hear his laments. These songs offer little in the way of escape, for the singer or the listener.

Trapped in resentments and impotence, the voice in songs like ?A Cruel Addiction,? ?Princess? ?Let The Bodies Lie? brags and rages quietly; these are songs made more menacing by their slow, grinding progress. The smoldering sense of loss and confusion is exhilerating as it is harrowing. ?Last Night I Killed a Man? isn?t so much a confession as a desolate prayer for the guts to exhibit some control over the madness. Jagged guitar and barely there percussion heighten the sense of urgency.

?The Hill? is about not having control, and Miss Autopsy is here to let us know that no one can really control the beast; you need to accept it, make friends with it, avoid its bad moods if you want to make some sense of the world, and not fall into isolation. These songs are about a man who is still wrestling, and losing. 8/10 -- Mike Wood (3 September, 2008)