Misery Signals

Metalcore bands nowadays! They're all angry for the sake of being angry, leaving listeners with an astounding curiosity about what they're so pinched about. Nevertheless, anger is certainly a valid emotion that is best expressed through loud, fast guitars and Misery Signals definitely make the best of their rage by manufacturing a metallic racket on Controller.

However, the Midwestern-based band doesn't solely rely on clang and clatter to make musical points. The tunes do have a mathematical bend to them, following unusual and unexpected time signatures. Misery Signals are known for inserting shimmery, pretty parts smack dab in the middle of all the riotous maelstrom and the band relies on that trend on Controller. Songs like "Coma," "A Certain Death" and "Set in Motion" contain moments of downright softness, which stand out amidst all the angst and guitar generated bluster. That's often the reason that bands alternate those popular quite-loud dynamics, since the easy-listening parts often exist to illustrate how aggressive the heavy, rawr'ing parts really are.

Controller is Misery Signals' second album with its new singer and the band trucks along, playing the same style of metal that has served them so well in the past. "Partcore" is the most accurate way to define the band's sound, since Misery Signals string together disparate elements, parts, styles and sonic bits from several different metal subgenres. Whether or not Controller is bigger than the sum of its parts is up to the listener. The more extreme metalheads may find the band's music too "light" while the casual metal fan may think it's too "screamy" and not memorable enough for their tastes. Therefore, Misery Signals fall into a category of listeners who like a plethora of dynamic shifts over the course of a song and that repeat throughout the entirety of an album.

— Amy Sciarretto
08.18.08

With the release of their third album, Controller, in he summer of 2008, Milwaukee, WI's Misery Signals effectively cast their lot with the collective fate of the rest of the melodic metalcore movement -- in sickness and in health -- as it gradually wanes in popularity on its way to being replaced by...oh, who knows? And who cares, both the group and its many fans might ask, since there's arguably as much historical precedent suggesting bands are always better off sticking to their stylistic guns, than hopping bandwagons in search of the next, fashionably trendy sub-sub-subgenre. And, for what it's worth, Controller slots quite comfortably alongside either of its very accomplished predecessors, showing that Misery Signals continue to excel at commingling both sides of the heavy/light emotional spectrum that defines their chosen genre. Typical energized jolts of catchy, concise metallic hardcore such as "Nothing," "Labyrinthian," "Set in Motion," and "Homecoming" fluidly rotate crunchy, bruising, yet agile riffs with luminous, oftentimes angelic harmonies, capable of latching onto listeners' memory banks like some evil sort of hot taffy. The fact that vocalist Karl Schubach competently matches his bandmates' every musical mood swing with alternately grunted, barked, sung, or spoken passages goes without saying; but there are times when one wishes that the entire group would simply loosen up a little, relinquish some of their iron-fisted performance discipline, and get down with their wild side. I mean, is a little sense of outright spontaneity too much to ask for, when an infamously crazed genius like Devin Townsend is acting as producer? Add to that a relative shortage of unexpected twists, beyond a little taste of Meshuggah's wacky rhythmic lurch to start off "A Certain Death," and some nice displays of dreamy atmospherics in "Coma" and "Reset," and the established Misery Signals template would surely feel far too restricted and safe, were they any less commanding of its every nuance. Nevertheless, in the big picture of hardcore and heavy metal's evolution through the new millennium's first decade, Controller at least shows Misery Signals to be in full control of their destiny and their chosen craft -- even if it's no longer considered cutting-edge. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide