In search for some new music for this new year, I found Miseration: a Swedish two-member band formed in 2006. Only two members? Yes, a collaboration between the known musicians Christian Alvestam (Scar Symmetry, Incapacity, Torchbearer, Quest of Aidance, Solar Dawn, Unmoored, ex-Syconaut, ex-Angel Blake, ex-Carnalized) and Jani Stefanovic (DivineFire, Essence of Sorrow, ex-Sins of Omission, ex-Crimson Moonlight, ex-Renascent, ex-Am I Blood, ex-Hilastherion).

With this much experience in just one band you can expect something decent, and it is! Furious death metal blows me away when I start the record. Brutal parts are followed by even heavier parts with fast doublebass drums as solid foundation. Alvestam’s grunts and screams as well as his higher pitched vocals are excellent, like only he can do it. With melodic guitars and industrial sounds as additional elements this band has everything I look for in metal.

A good example of a song that shows what Miseration is about is track 3, ‘Seven Are The Sins’. It opens with shredding guitars followed by some pure Swedish melodic death metal. Not so long after, hell explodes with even more brutallity and a symphonic sound. In the middle of the song you can hear a really soft part with a whispering voice, and in the end there is some more melodeath. It’s obvious that this band has no boundaries.

So is this release a pot of gold you can find at the end of the rainbow? Yeah. But I do have a critical comment regarding the production. It isn’t bad - defenitely not - but while listening with a quality headphone it is sometimes difficult to hear the difference between all the instruments and effects. Every spot is completely filled with drums and together with the guitars and bass it creates a really fat and grooving sound. They might wanted it to be like this (and there’s nothing wrong with groove metal), but it is a little bit too much and it exhausts you while listening.