Band: Misery Signals
Release: Absent Light (Album)
Release Date: Out Now
Following five years of absence, when Misery Signals revealed that they would be making a return, stronger than ever with ‘Absent Light‘, fans and the world of heavy music aligned in unison. Bullshit aside, kids were excited and those kids expected the world from this record.
‘A Glimmer Of Hope‘ consumes us with post-rock styled chording and possible confusion, outrage, or glee to loyal fans. The heavy-styled vocals over the ambient rhythm sections only paying compliment to each other as ‘Luminary‘ bawls in, all guns blazing, grooves ahoy, dick hard metalcore. Perfect!
Heavy bangers like ‘Reborn (An Execution)‘ and ‘The Carrier‘ remind the old-school of what this band were/are and light up the worlds of metalcore kids who may (of recent) be feeling as though they’re shit out of luck with decent ‘core bands. THAT mid-section of ‘Shadows And Depth‘ made us actually say ‘Fuck!’ out loud and do that dickhead gurn/pout/head-nod thing that you expect from music pricks but fortunately (or unfortunately) we felt no shame whatsoever.
Tracks like ‘Two Solitudes‘ incorporate all things ‘metalcore’ without being cliched; clean guitars, dropped sections – something that Misery Signals always had in their favour, along with the fact that they didn’t have that pumplex ‘clean’ vocalist that pipes up in every chorus to ruin something sick. There’s a mental section in ‘The Shallows‘, that sounds as though it’s being played upon some sort of chime, whilst ‘Ursa Minor‘ is straight-up heavy as fucking anything. No messing, just riffs.
Closer ‘Everything Will Rust‘ is a piece that’s clue is in the title; bleak, beautiful and minor without being overly condemning. That dreaded clean singing makes an appearance, an appearance that backs up nothing of what we said, it is conveyed classically and tastefully, paying homage to the raw screamed vocal section and the complimenting rhythms section.
‘Absent Light‘ is a record for the fans, a perfect ‘welcome back’ gift to the loyal that doesn’t lack anything that Misery Signals embodied before their hiatus; it’s heavy, emotive, interesting and dark. You’d sure do well to make a purchase.
8/10
Reviewer: Luke Davis
