And here with this record there are no surprises. Using classic thrash metal and even earlier with Iron Maiden-esque timings, riffs and flashy off beat licks, combining them with the powerful vocals you can find in nu-metal and giving a punk/emo edge to the lyrics and general composition, Misery Signals’ debut record ‘Of Malice and the Magnum Heart’ doesn’t really sound like its doing anything new from where Funeral for a Friend first made their voices known to the world with “This Years Most Open Heartbreak”. This however is a misconception, as the sound of Misery Signals dips into heavy, brutal riffs as response to when Jesse Zaraska’s lyrics get angry, and on the other side of the paradigm gets beautifully emotional and melodic in the lyric’s sadder moments. It is a 43 minute barrage of Zaraska’s apparent pain in his lyrics and the soundtrack more than perfectly appropriate that, although varies in sound, never loses its edge throughout.

The short blast intro of ‘A Victim, A Target’ pretty much sums up what you are about to experience in a brutal sucker punch and durates for only 2 minutes. Although being one of the heaviest tracks you will find on this record, probably because it’s a short introduction, the emotional side to this track you will find is with the accompanying strings backing up this violent riff. And so it’s off to a start as the almost punk-fuelled anthem ‘In Response to Stars’ giving the fast paced feel to most of the record. But it is ‘The Year Summer Ended in June’ that is the first look into the bands variety and brutality in their music. Starting off heavy as what you have heard so far, but without you even noticing shifting from a punk song, to an Emo song, and backto metal again. Its also in this song that you first notice Zaraska’s refreshingly unique side to his vocals, where he stops his aggression in his voice just for short stabs, as you find with the licks the guitars provide in-between riffs, and actually speaks his lyrics rather than shout which makes his vocals and the music complete. With such simplicity of just speaking some of the lyrics, it suddenly becomes a whole new level of personal touch, and you almost feel that you are in these traumas Zaraska speaks of in his lyrics.

‘The Stinging Rain’ is the next song where you can pinpoint that the band are offering the whole deal of variety. Although throughout the album in most tracks you can hear a lot of influences, apart from the stripped down tracks, generally the whole album offers a similar feel to make it flow well. But, ‘The Stinging Rain’ is an extremely dark and moody sound, still combining the metal riffs and punk quick draw harmonics, this is a 5 minute piece of art that, without you even realising sets you up perfectly for the chilled out, stripped-down awe of ‘Worlds & Dreams’., an instrumental that is almost flamenco with its use of guitars in modern fashion, and makes the half way point clear.

The second half of the album is generally quite heavy and moody, ‘5 Years’ being the highlight as a heavy transgression between riffs and harmonics to sum up the three penultimate tracks, but ‘Difference of Vengeance and Wrongs’ the finale, is a fantastic stripped down acoustic styled song like ‘Worlds & Dreams’ but with out the experimental side to it. The finale, sung by a different vocalist, is almost a classic rock n roll ballad standing 6 and half minutes strong and makes this album complete.

This is a band who show amazing potential, and have released a fantastic debut here. Here’s hoping its onward and upwards for metalcore’s true talents, Misery Signals, as opposed to the MTV hugging bands in the pipeline right now.