Rose From The Ashes Of The Plague ...

As I said earlier, Misery Signals is the offspring of a couple of members of 7Angels7Plagues. The bass player (name) and guitarist (name) helped in creating this new band and continue in the melodic metalcore style they were brilliantly a part of in 7A7P. Misery Signals do not use as much melody and have more of a Nodes of Ranvier sound to them, a kind of chaotic core using weird time signatures and start/stop riffing. The vocals are screamy with more use of clean (non distorted) singing than 7A7P did which gives them more of an anthemic feel ... shout out like.

"Of Malice And The Magnum Heart" starts off with "A Victim, A Target" which is a short mood setting piece that's dark and haunting as well as good and crunchy. Then we get blasted by "In Response To Stars" which has ragged breathing like start stop riffing with a good chunk of melody. The off timed raging brutality continues with "In Summary Of What I Am" and "The Stinging Rain".

We get a chance to slow down here with "Worlds And Dreams", a slower instrumental with emo-like influences. It's long enough for us to get comfy and relaxed before being sucker punched by "Murder" one of the more brutal tunes.

The album comes to a close with some more melodic metalcore on tracks "Five Years" which is emotionally crunchy and heartfelt and "Difference Of Vengeance And Wrongs". "Difference ..." slows us down without losing the chunky riffs, but instead features more "clean" vocals and melody.

My favourite track is "The Year Summer Ended In June". This song was recorded earlier I think for an EP or Demo as well as being included on "Of Malice ...". This is the most melodic song on the album and has a great mix of brutal guitar work and heavy emotion riffing. The last minute or so of the song is very moving and is obviously under the influence of 7A7P songwriting I'm sure (but don't quote me!).

As sad as I am that there will never be another 7Angels7Plagues album, I am hearten that some members will carry the torch while growing in their own musical direction with new musicians' influences. Misery Signals has a good handle on melodic metalcore and the signal looks strong!

The next couple of posts will not be building off the pattern I've started with melodic metalcore, but in fact will be moving in several different directions ... I'll surprise ya's!