Misanthropy is the general hatred, mistrust or dislike of the human species or human nature. A misanthrope, or misanthropist is someone who holds such view or feeling. The word's origin is from Greek words μῖσος (misos, "hatred") and ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos, "man, human"). The condition is often confused with asociality.

Misanthropy has been ascribed to a number of writers of satire, such as William S. Gilbert ("I hate my fellow-man"). Jonathan Swift is widely believed to be misanthropic (see A Tale of a Tub and, most especially, Book IV of Gulliver's Travels).

Molière's character Alceste in Le Misanthrope (1666) states:

In Emily Brontë's solitary novel, Wuthering Heights, the eponymous setting—the home of Heathcliff—is referred to as a "perfect misanthrope's Heaven."

In Western philosophy, misanthropy has been connected to isolation from human society. In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates defines the misanthrope in relation to his fellow man: "Misanthropy develops when without art one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later discovers him to be bad and unreliable...and when it happens to someone often...he ends up...hating everyone." Misanthropy, then, is presented as the result of thwarted expectations or even excessively naive optimism, since Plato argues that "art" would have allowed the potential misanthrope to recognize that the majority of men are to be found in between good and evil.Aristotle follows a more ontological route: the misanthrope, as an essentially solitary man, is not a man at all: he must be a beast or a god, a view reflected in the Renaissance of misanthropy as a "beast-like state."

Limbonic Art is a symphonic black metal band from Sandefjord, Norway.

Limbonic Art formed in 1993. In 1996, they were signed to the record label Nocturnal Art Productions, owned by Samoth (of Emperor and Zyklon). Their debut album was Moon in the Scorpio. In 2003, the group decided to disband with a statement saying "we feel that we have reached as far as we could in our collaboration ... the circle is complete, begin another".

On June 6, 2006 (06.06.06), the band reunited and started to write new material. On February 21, 2007 it was announced that the band plans to release the new album entitled Legacy of Evil in summer 2007.^{[citation needed]}

A subsequent dispute between the band members resulted in Morfeus's ousted from the band, making Limbonic Art essentially Daemon's solo project. He has currently completed the new Limbonic Art release, named Phantasmagoria, out summer 2010. The new music strips the symphonics and keyboards, making it a more raw, pure black metal band.^{[citation needed]}