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.

Divine Eve - The Last of the Sunset Faded (demo)

Once in a while I come across a demo recording that simply blows me away. I shouldnt be as suprised when it happens I have heard many truly excellent demos in my time; however, there are great demos and then there are the HOLYCRAPTHISSHITRULES demos. Divine Eve's Last of the Sunset Faded is one such demo. The fact that The band were subsequently signed to Nuclear Blast and this demo re-released on cd (under the title As the Angels Weep) is a good indicator of the quality herein.

My first reaction upon hearing this was how good it sounds, considering this is a demo it sounds huge and professional while retaining that demo rawness. The second thing, whilst being musically primitive the songwriting across these four songs is exceptionally mature especially for a first effort. Mixing crusty, d-beat inflected Scandinavian death metal (despite hailing from Texas) with the slow and dirge-like riffing of Celtic Frost they create a very dynamic listen; however, they weren't exactly breaking new ground. Acts such as Dream Death, Aspyhx and Sempiternal Deathreign had already defined the Death/Doom style, and it is very likely influenced Divine Eve themselves.

As is the case of Asphyx The Rack, Last of the Sunset Faded triumphs simply for being a brilliantly written and executed slab of crushingly heavy death metal. Sadly internal tensions ripped the band apart after one further demo, Xan Hammack went on to form Crimson Relic essentially the spiritual air to DE and released the excellent Purgatorys Reign for Nuclear Blast subsidiary Radiation.

Pictured is my own copy of the original tape which i picked up on ebay for a staggering £6 earlier this year, having misplaced my copy of the cd i jumped on this, if anything it sounds even better. Both this and the following demo are available on the Upon These Ashes Scorn the World compilation and Divine Eve are back once more and releasing new music, good times.