Review Summary: All in all, this is a top-notch, classic piece of music-making. This album is so good, I actually feel it should stand in it's own separate genre all on it's own. Go ge it now.
How do I write objectively about what I perceive to be the greatest heavy album of all time? I'm 30 and lived through Metallica, Megadeth, and Pantera's glory days. But nothing has affected me more heavily then "Of Malice and the Magnum Heart". Misery Signals is comprised of 3 ex-members of 7 Angels 7 Plagues, a band that at their time had so much potential that they were deemed "the next Converge". They disbanded in 2001 and hooked up with a new vocalist and backing guitar player in Jesse Zaraska (of Compromise), whom ended up in this band because of a fatal car crash and loss of a best friend) and Stu Ross.
Misery Signals had first put out a 6 song EP that was so good it took their hype to the stratoshphere. It is very comparable to "No Wings to Speak of" by Hopesfall or "The Opposite of December" by Poison The Well, only with more complicated time signatures, excruciatingly honest lyrics, and more contrasting (in a good way) guitar playing.
Fast forward to 2004 and the release of their first full-length feature debut, the critically acclaimed "Of Malice And the Magnum Heart", the band's opus, even up to today. To give you an idea of it's brilliance,, I can tell you that over 40 publications named it album of the year for 2004, a huge feat for such a small band. This album was produced with near-perfection by Devin Townsend, with even a few of his signature indicative melodic synthertic sounds (see "A Victim, A Target" or "Worlds and Dreams"). Even ex-vocalist of 7a7p Matthew Mixon has a few one-word cameos in the album that work to immense effect along with spoken word passages that actually work well.
What defines this album is Misery Signals' uncanny sense of melody layered over super-complicated odd time signatures which never repeat themselves throughout the songs but still manage to keep the songs in a linear, sensical structure, something most bands have never really been able to pull off. The other thing that defines it is Jesse Zaraska's heart-wrenching, butterfly-in-you-stomach-inducing lyrics which don't give a damn about rhyming or pulling off pointless pseudo-poetry and forcing it.
Nothing that this band does feels forced here, it feels completely natural. Because of the raw naturalism of the architecture of this album, Misery Signals was able to pull off the most difficult thing that can be done in a musical platform, and that is reinvent the wheel. How? By producing song structures that take consistently different turns, non-repetetive drumming or guitar pieces, time signatures attached to break downs the likes you haven't probably heard since Converge's "Jane Doe", and pure, unadulterated honesty. It is pure musical brilliance, the type of album that comes about once every decade or so.
The beginning track, "A Victim, A Target", is so simplistic and short but extremely effective in setting you up with an almost nervous touch, so visceral and real that you can feel the thunder coming. This song has also become a staple in their live sets as the opening song. It is also laden with some Devin Townsend-y additions of a haunting synth-sounding soprano voice which matches the guitar tone up to the end. The second song, "In Response To Stars", then steam rolls you over with drumming that is so fast it sounds like 3 drummers are present, and dueling guitars that take you to and fro' and back again with several different change-ups and a gorgeous, melodic ending. This song structure is what you will mostly find on all tracks on this album, save for "Worlds and Dreams", a track with only low, soothing guitars and no vocals, and an ending song full of clean vocals that wraps up the album beautifully by ending with the same riff the album starts with, thus making it a never ending record.
Standout songs include"The Stinging Rain", "The Year The Summer Ended in June", "On Account of An Absence", and the swansong of this opus, "Five Years", a track of absolute perfection. Chillingly melodic, constant change ups that make sense and keep it interesting, and a fade-out to rival all fade-outs in any musical genre. Just listen to the final 2 minutes and you'll get what I mean.
