Misery - Mystic

Misery is a great name for a metal band it's one of those words that has so many thematic connections to metal, little suprise then that so many bands have chosen the moniker over the years. This paticular Misery hailed from Switzerland and in my opinion among the most deserving of the name. This their one and only album from 1993 is a solid piece of somber doom metal with significant death and black metal influences. The closest reference point is fellow Swissonians Samael (unsuprisingly Misery feature an ex-member of Samael).

Anyone familiar with the earlier Samael material should find many similarities here, the predisposition towards slow to mid-paced tempos, and the use atmospheric arpegiated chords and Hellhammer/Celtic Frost esque grooves; however, Misery's sound has a more traditional feeling to their doom influences and while both bands have qualities of death metal Misery's is most pronounced in the vocal delivery. Despite the proliferation of the more traditional scandinavian style i always really liked this more ponderous style of BM, i find the slower tempo allows the atmospherics and the more moribund qualities of the scales and progressions opportunity to flourish.

On a critical note the production is far from perfect, while the drums sound full and powerful by contrast the guitars sound a bit flat, however the buzzing tone highlights the darker colours of their sound. Ultimately this remains a great piece of obscure and colourful doom metal well deserving of a reissue, the only pressing as of yet being from the tiny (and long dead) Swiss label Blackened. Their releases all being very hard to come by I was lucky to find this for a meagre £8, so good luck.