Misery Signals- Controller

The first Misery Signals record (see Of Malice And The Magnum Heart) was a perfect record. It took me years to realize that, but it's the truth, as far as I'm concerned. It's very rare to find a disc without a weak moment in any area. Mirrors, their second effort, had no lasting impact on me as an avid Misery Signals fan- 10 of 11 songs were completely forgettable, but they did release "The Failsafe" on that album, which is easily the best song they've ever written, and almost completely redeems the other 60 minutes of so-so material. And now, they are on the cusp of releasing CONTROLLER, which is one of the most amazing records I've heard this year.

Reviewing albums is difficult to some extent and in more ways than one it's pointless. The idea is give your readers (or in my case, reader) the information they need to determine whether or not they should pursue a certain record, and it's a wonderful position if people actually listen to you because you have a chance to mold the future music scene in some small way according to your values. You can promote music that you think there should be more, and detract from music you think is detrimental to the overall music scene.

That being said, the key topic on CONTROLLER for me is "maturity." Misery Signals is no longer a teenager, no longer going through growing pains. It has grown into a beast of an adult; this disc knows almost exactly what sounds it wants, what moods it wants to convey, what niche to fall in, and what movements to make to win you over. The tedious song-writing reflects the earnestness which the music, even more than the vocalist, conveys. There are songs on this disc that will make you angry, and there are songs that will get you lost in some new environment. And that's what I mean about maturity. You no longer get the impression that this part is supposed to be "brutal" and make you want to break things, or that this part is supposed to make you think they are "super technical" at their instruments or anything like that. I get the impression that it's about conveying feeling, which is what music is ultimately all about. The day that you can stop writing for you audience and start writing to convey yourself is the day that your music becomes what it was always meant to be.

Things to note with this record:

1) Devin Townsend returns to the producing throne with this CD. Notice that I say the first CD (which he produced) was perfect, and the second (which he didn't) was completely forgettable. No one shall consider this a coincidence. I'm just curious as to how much of this CD he wrote himself.

2) A strange return to profanity on this record. I think that after the first one they took a much safer approach all around, including dropping the controversial (not really) F WORD.

Listen to this record hard. Notice the nice post-production touches, the barely audible clean vocals, and the auxiliary percussion. Track 3, "Labyrinthian," has some seriously sketchy song-writing that bores me to death, and there's definitely a few moments on this record I could do without. It's not perfect, but it will definitely stick around, just like Malice. These guys are completely undervalued.