Misery Signals. Revered in metalcore, despite largely avoiding the heights that some newer (and less interesting) bands have reached in recent years. Now looking to stride forward, after a long gap, with this release, their new record ‘Absent Light’. Their first since 2008’s ‘Controller’.
The band’s membership has shifted around yet again, and this one was produced by the band’s guitarists (a first for them – thanks Wikipedia!), but it still pretty much sounds exactly like you’d hope: battering riffs and crushing vocals over plenty of near inindecipherable time signatures.
That’s not to say you couldn’t throw down to it though, because the band still have a knack for a great beatdown – listen to ‘Shadows And Depth’ and ‘Two Solitudes’ in particular for fine examples.
‘Absent Light’ has been a long, long time coming, but you do get the feeling that it was either that or nothing. A few years back it seemed a little unlikely they would even get around to another record, but instead there’s 11 brutal tracks of crushing Misery Signals music.
There’s great ideas in this record, and a peppering of experimentation with instrumentation and dynamics. A solid album from one of the early stalwarts of modern metalcore, and a fine return to form.
TOM AYLOTT