Miseration - The Mirroring Shadow
Rating
RIYL
BloodbathMeshuggah
Scar Symmetry
Amon Amarth
Release Date
01/19/2010
Label
Lifeforce RecordsTracklist
1 Dreamdecipher 2:132 Blueprinted Aeon Collapse 3:58
3 Voyaging the Seas of Thought 4:05
4 The Mirroring Shadow 4:55
5 A Trail Blazed through Time 3:36
6 Dimorphic 4:30
7 Sulphury Sun 4:20
8 Imago 4:16
9 Theca 4:10
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Christian Älvestam often draws comparisons to Opeth's Metal Jesus himself, Mikael Åkerfeldt, as both share several elements and facets to their careers. Both front (or should I say fronted with regards to Älvestam) progressive metal bands who push the boundaries of death metal to the extreme, both are fairly prolific as guest vocalists, both utilize dual singing techniques of both harmonious clean vocals and deep, guttural growls; and finally, they both front a side project exploring straight-up brutal death metal. Akelfedt has the mighty Bloodbath and Älvestam fronts the band in question, Miseration.
Miseration consists of the duo of Christian Älvestam and Jani Stefanovic (who are both also in the bands Solution .45, Incapacity, and The Few Against Many). Already releasing a debut of thunderous melodic death metal in late '07 (early '08 for the USA), the band are back, bigger, better and even more, er, 'brutal-er' with the excellent sophomore effort, The Mirroring Shadow.
There are a number of differences displayed here between this album and their debut. The first is that the band seem to have adopted a straight-up death metal sound with influences from melodic death metal as opposed to the other way around, and also there's no clean vocals from Christian - it's pure brutality all the way. Immediately kicking off with the ultra-technical “Dreamdecipher” the comparisons to Bloodbath are immediately noticed, but the supergroup have arguably never wrote anything near this caliber. Opening up in a superstorm flurry of blastbeats, polyrhythms, guitar squeals and tech riffery your mind will boggle and your head will bang trying to keep up with the seemingly multi-directional melodies.
While the vocal contributions from Älvestam are nothing short of stellar, it would be inconsiderate to not focus on the real maestro of the group here, Jani Stefanovic. Writing and playing all the music, he takes in a variety of death metal styles and somehow seamlessly interweaves them all together. Brutal death metal, technical death metal, and hints of melodic death metal - they're all included here.
I think Älvestam can be forgiven for breaking many a metal-heads' hearts when he announced he was leaving Scar Symmetry, especially since they've carried on without him, but also because of the quality of the output from many of his other bands. The Mirroring Shadow is one of the best metal releases to have been released last year (this year in the USA), and probably would've been an album of the year contender if only it was a little longer. At only nine tracks and just 36 minutes you're left desperately panting for more. I can only hope that there's a Japanese issue with an extra couple of tracks bunged on the end, but, if like me, you're disappointed with the short length of this album, you can always hit the play button again and listen to it once more.
--Rich Taylor
Comments
Minnesota
This album is, indeed, frickin' awesome... but the length thing was a killer for me. Yeah, I can "hit play again", but I don't want to listen to the same short 9 songs again. I want to sink my teeth into some more material from the band.
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Infinitely Inwards
Good album...but we all know that this is Christian's weakest band. Scar Symmetry, Meshuggah, and Bloodbath are all better than Miseration. However if you want some great news, Solution .45 is releasing their album April 4 called "From Aeons Past" and it is going to be awesome.
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Boston, MA
This sounds pretty good. Love Scar Symmetry, Meshuggah, and Bloodbath. I'll be checking this out when I get out of work. Although I really just wish they wouldn't mind me blasting metal at work. I'd probably be more productive.
Stereo Typing
Tweet at me, bro
Minnesota
I just wear headphones. I'm known around the office as the dude who sits in a cube in the corner with headphones on all day.
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