Destroyer of Man : 1984-2008

Dominic Mallary was the punk rock Renaissance man. A successful musician, artist, and poet; he remained true to a deeply ingrained DIY ethos up until his untimely death on stage in 2008 at the age of 24. Destroyer of Man is as much a product of Mallary’s uncompromising lifestyle as it is the manifestation of his life’s work. A combination of poems published during Mallary’s lifetime alongside poems posthumously selected by friends, Destroyer of Man reveals a fiercely aware young poet writing from a place of anger and beauty with a lyrical virtuosity that is free from censorship. Drawing on a long and varied tradition, Mallary is equal parts Hart Crane and Rimbaud. Arresting, raw, clever, and unexpectedly moving, these poems tear away at the world in a relentless pursuit for liberation from the ugly and mundane. Ultimately, Mallary finds that freedom not at the core of humanity, but in the ashes we leave behind.

Dominic Mallary was the punk rock Renaissance man. A successful musician, artist, and poet; he remained true to a deeply ingrained DIY ethos up until his untimely death on stage in 2008 at the age of 24. Destroyer of Man is as much a product of Mallary’s uncompromising lifestyle as it is the manifestation of his life’s work.

A combination of poems published during Mallary’s lifetime alongside poems posthumously selected by friends, Destroyer of Man reveals a fiercely aware young poet writing from a place of anger and beauty with a lyrical virtuosity that is free from censorship. Drawing on a long and varied tradition, Mallary is equal parts Hart Crane and Rimbaud. 

Arresting, raw, clever, and unexpectedly moving, these poems tear away at the world in a relentless pursuit for liberation from the ugly and mundane. Ultimately, Mallary finds that freedom not at the core of humanity, but in the ashes we leave behind.