Misery Signals
Controller

You are on DeBaser, looking for the review of your favorite band, you search everywhere, you think "meh, maybe someone mistakenly put it in the film section..." and even there, nothing, empty, total zero, it's just not there. The annoying part is that while searching you might even notice there are 2 reviews of those posh/trendy/dick-sucking Bring Me The Horizon (with all due respect to the reviewers...) or worse, for example, the overrated A Day To Remember. Guys, you really made me angry this time: how the hell is that possible??? I'm telling you, missing the chance to discover a band like Misery Signals is missing the chance to listen to THE band, absolutely, in the "core" domain. Killswitch Engage, Parkway Drive, Architects, As I Lay Dying, Poison The Well, all amazing bands, but compared to Misery... nothing, I assure you.

"Controller" is released by the underground label Ferret in 2008 and marks the return to the console of the "guru" of modern metal Devin Townsend (I hope you know who he is...), a guy who previously produced the same band during their debut, the seminal "Of Malice And The Magnum Heart", after the "Mirrors" phase, their second album which confirmed the band's absolute talent compared to the rest of the hardcore/metal scene. And let's say it outright, "Controller" is much more than just a great album, it's a damn masterpiece, or rather, M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E.

Enough chatter, here we're dealing with a superior band, in every aspect. Combining elements from progressive and post-rock (cave in), hardcore new school (the reference band is once again Shai Hulud, but inspirations in math can also be seen) and metal (meshuggah), emerges a new, powerful, varied, super heavy, never banal sound, already inspiring hundreds of bands worldwide, without the masses even noticing (Counterparts, It Prevails...). Picking up on the good things Branden and Ryan did in the past with the resurrected 7 Angels 7 Plagues, the combo manages to deliver yet again a handful of songs of unheard quality: the blows between Hardcore and Meshuggah of "Weight Of The World", "Nothing" and "Parallels" take no prisoners, "A Certain Death" is simply perfect, "Set in Motion", "Coma", "Labyrinthian" are songs that a band like August Burns Red will never write, melodic, dreamy, unique, while the rest of the setlist, featuring the purely progressive episodes of "Homecoming", "Reset" and "Ebb And Flow" (the acoustic version is also beautiful) maintains a quality standard that would make any current band, in the genre and beyond, pale.

Whether it's the cacophony of bands like Emmure, The Acacia Strain, Suicide Silence, or the absolute banality of bands like Bring Me The Horizon, I Killed The Prom Queen, not to mention the now outdated offering of Comeback Kid and Your Demise, to name a couple, there's no band in the world that has the inspiration, capabilities, and style of the aforementioned great ones, able to deliver an album like "Controller" after 2 consecutive masterpieces like "of malice.." and "mirrors" without leaving room for other possible surprises. Listen to them and you won't regret it.