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.