St. Louis punks Fight Back Mountain returned with Death & The Miser, their third full-length, on February 13, 2025. The new record channels the raw spirit of classic acts like Alkaline Trio, the Lawrence Arms, and Jawbreaker, filtered through the band’s midwest lens.
Across twelve songs, they document their experiences in a region they call home but see as increasingly unpredictable and crumbling in plain sight.
At the album’s core, lyricist/guitarist Anjelica Aquilino wrestles with the realization that “everything she was told growing up is no longer true.”
Her words give voice to disillusioned midwesterners left stranded by fading infrastructure and dwindling opportunities. Guitarist/vocalist Adrian Barnello says St. Louis itself, with its “faded glory and uncertain future,” feels like “almost a member of the band.” The resulting tracks are a testament to living in a place of harsh seasonal extremes—blizzards rolling in one month, heat waves the next—and the toll that can take on mental wellbeing. Aquilino notes how “these unpredictable swings can just make everything feel bigger.”
Death & The Miser was announced with the ripping “Trouble And Havoc,” a tribute to dysfunction that set the tone for the record’s more aggressive edge.
“No Recourse” followed, revealing the band’s hardcore influences as it seethed at the powers that let the world rot. Like Times Beach (2019), Lavender Sky (2021), and the Backslider EP (2023), the new album was recorded at Encapsulated Studios with producer Gabe Usery.
Barnello, Aquilino, bassist Andy Kohnen, and drummer Devin Dessieux maintain the same lineup that has guided Fight Back Mountain since the early days.
Aquilino also created the album’s visuals, drawing inspiration from classical art for both the title and cover. “The name Death & The Miser is a direct reference by a work of Hieronymus Bosch,” she explains, linking it to the loose narrative throughout the album of “a couple on the rocks; one of whom has deep emotional troubles, and the other of whom is an aspiring wanna-be internet celebrity.”
Meanwhile, the front image is adapted from “Angel of Death” by Horace Vernet, which Aquilino framed with her own border and “metal logo.”
In 2025, the band plans to take Death & The Miser on the road.
“We’re going on a short tour from March 6th to 9th,” Barnello shares, “playing in Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago.” He’s hoping to “get the album in front of as many people as possible,” citing how proud the band is of the new material. Its lyrical themes—disillusionment, isolation, and the loss of a promised world—tie together with a story that, though fictional, feels uncomfortably familiar.
Fight Back Mountain has been active since 2018, but Barnello notes a shift in St. Louis since shows resumed in 2021: “Alternative music in St. Louis, especially punk and hardcore, has been booming since the end of COVID lockdowns.
It’s been really amazing to see.” He shouts out Squint, who have earned national attention, and gives credit to Jake from Direct Measure for supporting the band and organizing their upcoming album release show. Also on the bill are Family Medicine, Like Heaven, Paternity Test, and Fool’s World. “There’s way too many bands to count,” Barnello adds, emphasizing the vibrant local scene thriving alongside them. He’s quick to praise producer Usery, too, asserting the new album “definitely would not have come out as well if not for him.”
That energy and camaraderie run through Death & The Miser. From its disillusioned lyrics to the layer of grit reminiscent of classic punk influences, the album feels distinctly shaped by life in the midwest.
For Fight Back Mountain, it’s another dispatch from the heartland—one that’s as honest about personal strife as it is about the world left behind by broken promises.
