Album Review: Misery Signals, Absent Light

While Karl Schubach’s howling narrative unravels like a snake, spreading long and vulnerable over loose gravel, his band, Wisconsin outfit Misery Signals beckon you toward the frenzied pit of primitive rage.

Five years in the making, the metalcore band’s fourth release was at first intercepted by label wankery after Ferret Music was absorbed by Warner Music Group in 2006. Misery Signals cut all ties and opted for the crowd-funding route with Indiegogo; a wise decision given the aleatory urges of the market place and Absent Light‘s alternative sonic techniques.

What started as the bedroom recordings of siblings Ryan and Branden Morgan through April of 2011 – after a spell of side-projects and lineup shuffling – is now a destructive hardcore collection, welded jagged and thick with the very best elements of metal. At 43 minutes, the eleven-track offering is, if nothing else, an education. It’s daring spontaneity hits home in tracks like Shadows and Depth, where restrained guitars sidestep for cinematic violin and the kind of repetitive structure that conventionally leads to a fade-out or a big finish but surprises by doing neither; or on Lost Relics, where featuring artist Todd Mackey (With Honor) is brought in for his devout Christian beliefs to roar the paradox of religious hypocrisy. Of all the collaborative tracks, of which there are many, Carriers stands out as the melodic anomaly. Featuring Matt Mixon (7 Angels 7 Plagues) – who chronicled the record’s ‘making of’ for the Misery Signals – Transmissions webisode series – the track is as unpredictable as it is calming; fervent percussion, esophagus-tearing screams and soaring guitars tightly break as if it were merely an afterthought.

Interestingly, the band are at their most effective without the organic birth of tracks discovered in bedroom jam sessions; Departure was finished in Pro-Tools well before the band could play it. Misery Signals shock with indulgent squalls, tempo changes and an intricate drum sequence while Schubach rounds out his stance on mortality.

Produced by guitarists Ryan Morgan and Greg Thomas, Absent Lightmarks a number of firsts for the band; and while ideologies may not hit home with all their fans, the record, at face value, is a self-induced whiplash that’s undeniably primordial.