Este mes sera dedicado a la escena de Hardcore Sudamericana y Centroamericana. This month will be dedicated to the Central and South American Hardcore Scene. Este mes sera dedicado a la escena de Hardcore Sudamericana y Centroamericana. This month will be dedicated to the Central and South American Hardcore Scene.
Posted by6 years ago
Archived
A Beginner's Guide To: Misery Signals
![Misery signals ep blogspot 1 Misery signals ep blogspot 1](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125559972/187139949.jpg)
Misery Signals is an American metalcore band that formed in Wisconsin in 2002. Misery Signals came about from the disbanding of two titans of the local hardcore scene: Compromise (from Edmonton, Canada), and 7 Angels 7 Plagues (from Racine, Wisconsin). The first complete incarnation of the band included Kyle Johnson of 7 Angels 7 Plagues on bass, Ryan Morgan of 7 Angels 7 Plagues on guitar, his brother, Branden Morgan on drums, Jesse Zaraska of Compromise on vocals, and Stu Ross of Hamartia on guitar. This is the lineup that is intact on the band's first two recordings.
Misery Signals (EP) - 2003, State of the Art Recordings
This is the band's first release. It contains six tracks, and is much closer to the realm of hardcore than metalcore. It plays like the last 7 Angels 7 Plagues record. The EP is dedicated to Jordan Wodehouse and Daniel Langlois, members of the band Compromise, who were killed in a drunk driving accident. That is also the subject matter of the first track on the EP, The Year Summer Ended in June, which would later appear on the band's first full length album. The lyrical content of this EP is based mostly on Jesse's experiences in losing his best friends, and feeling lost, and alone. The production on this EP is very raw, and has far less layering of Jesse's vocals (with the exception of the heavily layered 'clean' vocals) than their first full length.
Stand-Out Tracks: Dream Atlantic, Echoes I: Mark the Path, Echoes II: Blessing or Curse
Of Malice and the Magnum Heart - 2004, Ferret Records
This is the first full length album released by Misery Signals. It marks many milestones in the band's career, being their first collaboration with Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad, who produced the album, and is also featured in the first track, A Victim, A Target. The album also contains guest vocals from Matthew Mixon of 7 Angels 7 Plagues on the tracks The Stinging Rain, Murder, and Five Years, as well as guest vocals from Byron Ellis on Difference of Vengeance and Wrongs. This is also the band's final album with Jesse Zaraska on vocals, who would leave the band in 2005 to front the band Sleeping Girl, and eventually leave the music business to become a high-school English teacher in Canada. This album contains the band's heaviest work. It is a powerful amalgamation of melodic hardcore and progressive metalcore. There are fewer clean guitars, and more breakdowns than the self-titled EP, as well as more technical and melodic guitar work, more technical drumming, and intensely complex songwriting, often shifting meters and tempos multiple times per track. Another notable change on this album is Jesse's vocals. His voice has gotten higher, but much more powerful. This is helped by Devin Townsend's wall-of-sound style of production, and extensive layering and double-tracking of vocals. The lyrical content of the album continues to reference the loss he dealt with on the self-titled EP, as well as betrayal, lonliness, and lost loves. This album is often cited as a starting point for modern melodic hardcore and melodic metalcore bands.
Stand-Out Tracks: The Year Summer Ended In June, Worlds & Dreams, Five Years
Mirrors - 2006, Ferret Records
This is the band's first release with then-new vocalist, Karl Schubach. It marks a massive departure from the style seen on previous releases, toning down the hardcore aspects, upping the melody, and making the breakdowns even heavier. This is also the band's longest release. This album features some of the band's most chord-heavy material, ditching riffs almost entirely for chord progressions with melodic lines laid out on top of them. The album was produced by Ben Schigel, and features the rawest (and, in my opinion, worst) production of any of their full-length albums. Interestingly, Patrick Stump of the pop punk band Fall Out Boy contributed his voice to the track One Day I'll Stay Home. This album is also unique in terms of Karl's vocal arrangements. Compared to future releases, Mirrors features far more high-range vocals, and 'clean' yelling (it seems, at times, like he imitated Jesse on this record). There is also a huge return for clean guitars on this record. Karl's lyrics are much more metaphorical than Jesse's, and require more listenings to fully digest. Lyrical themes discussed on the album include overcoming obstacles, perseverance, regret, depression, and suicide.
Stand-Out Tracks: One Day I'll Stay Home, Something Was Always Missing But It Was Never You, Anchor
Controller - 2008, Ferret Records
This is the last record Misery Signals released before an unofficial hiatus, and is also the last Misery Signals record to feature Stu Ross on guitar. He was replaced by Gregory Thomas. This was also thought to be the last album to feature Kyle Johnson on bass, as he resigned from the band in 2010. However, as of 2013, Kyle Johnson has returned. Controller marks a return to form, seeing the band collaborate with Devin Townsend as a producer once more (whose production on this album is the best of any Misery Signals album yet), and reintroducing the complexity seen on their first full-length. This features the band's most complex and progressive material, often incorporating polyrhythmic drumming, and melodic counterpoint between the guitars, as well as complex song structure. Karl's vocals are also much lower than we heard on Mirrors, but are delivered with amazing clarity. The vocals on this record are so well enunciated that most people who listen to music with primarily clean vocals can understand the lyrics. The lyrical content on this album deals with loss, depression, love, self-hatred, forgiveness, and religion. An acoustic version of the track Ebb & Flow is featured on the Japanese release of the album.
Stand-Out Tracks: Nothing, Labyrinthian, Parallels, Set In Motion, Ebb & Flow
HIATUS, AND FOCUS ON SIDE-PROJECTS 2009-2012
During this time, Karl Schubach went to record a one-man album under the name Solace, entitled Call & Response. It features Karl playing 8-string guitar, bass, and on vocals, with programmed drums. Jonathan Vigil of The Ghost Inside is featured on the track Our Father.
During this time, Ryan Morgan, Kyle Johnson, and Stu Ross started the hardcore band Burning Empires with Matthew Mixon of 7 Angels 7 Plagues on guitar, and Andy Hurley of Fall Out Boy on drums.
Stu Ross also formed the post-hardcore band Lowtalker with Branden Morgan and Casey Hjelmberg and Matt Keil of Comeback Kid, and released People Worry About Everything through FC Records.
![Misery signals t shirt Misery signals t shirt](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125559972/932467121.jpg)
Stu Ross also became the frontman of the Canadian pop-punk band, Living With Lions, and officially quit Misery Signals in 2010.
New Studio Album - 2013, release TBA, self-released
Misery Signals is currently in the studio to record their fourth full length album. The previous lineup from Controller and Mirrors is intact, with the exception of Stu Ross' guitar position, which has been filled by Gregory Thomas. The band has stated that it will feature the structure and complexity of Controller, while returning to the chaotic brutality of Of Malice and the Magnum Heart. The band was inspired by Protest the Hero to self-release the album, and fund it via fan donations on IndieGoGo. There are currently 33 days left to donate, and each donation will earn you one of various merch packages.
Absent Light - 2013, Basick Records
This is the band's most recent release, after a lengthy hiatus, five years after the release of Controller. This is the first Misery Signals release to feature Greg Thomas (aside from the band's cover of Pink Floyd's Us and Them), who, alongside Ryan Morgan, produced the album. This album is a bit of a musical departure from Controller, adding in a multitude of clean guitars reminiscent of the clean guitars on Mirrors, and returning some of the more groove-oriented and chaotic riffs that were present on Of Malice and the Magnum Heart. That said, the album still has the progressive mentality, harmonic aspects, and guitar counterpoint found on Controller. Also, a first for the band, is a large inclusion of a string quartet, featuring Juliann Eldridge and Emily Dixon on violin, Kelsey Georgeson on viola, and Sara Cerrato and Samaquias Lorta on cello. The strings help add a good deal of depth to the music, while still giving guitarists Ryan Morgan and Greg Thomas room to play, and room to breathe in the mix. From a production standpoint, this album has, by far, the best production of any Misery Signals release. In terms of lyrical content, this album deals with many of the same themes that can be found on Controller, such as love, loss, and guilt. Karl's lyrics are even further drenched in metaphor than they were on previous releases, giving them much more depth, and requiring repeated listenings to fully understand. Karl's vocals sound more-or-less the same as they did on Solace's album, and on Controller, though that is not at all a bad thing. This album has three guest vocalists, as well, leaving Controller the only release by the band without guest vocals. It features Matthew Mixon of 7 Angels 7 Plagues on Carrier, Todd Mackey of With Honor on Lost Relics, and Fredua Boakye of Bad Rabbits on Everything Will Rust. Before the album's release, Karl hinted that there would be guest vocals, courtesy of Jesse Zaraska, the band's original vocalist, but this, unfortunately, never came to be. Overall, this album seems to be a strong culmination of everything that the band had done in the past, while maintaining it's own identity as an album, and being a logical progression for the band.
Stand-Out Tracks: Shadows and Depth, Ursa Minor, Lost Relics, Everything Will Rust
5 comments