The Demo Review:
Misery, Inc. There are currently 1 Reviews of this Demo.
Average Rating: 2
Band Name: Misery, Inc.
Demo Title: Suicide Serenade
Band Members: Jonttu - Drums, Jukka - Bass, Janne - Guitar, Teemu - Guitar, Jukkis - Vocals.
Location: Helsinki, Finland
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    • Blind's Review:
    Ah, the dreaded demos. Demos are a lot like looking through a CD bargain bin (an activity any metalhead knows well): you sift through enough crap and you may come up with a gem. Unfortunately, Misery Inc.'s Suicide Serenade would be something I would most likely bypass.

    Since this is a demo, I will give it a little more description than a well-known artist. It's only fair to a band that's trying to make it.

    First, here is a breakdown of the tracks:

    Track 1 ("Suicide Serenade"): it opens up sounding like something from Devin Townsend's Ocean Machine, but with more layering. Sounds promising. Not bad, but not great either.

    Track 2 ("Darkness"): this track is not for anyone that does not like mainstream Gothenburg metal, which seems to be of heavy influence here.

    Track 3 ("Life Ain't Fair"): reminds me of Dark Tranquillity. Unfortunately, it is fairly uninteresting. I don't know... I suppose I'm not in the mood for slow paced, ballad-esque song after two tracks of mainly uninspired music.

    Track 4 ("Follow"): the fastest on the disc. Although it still sounds like a Gothenburg clone, I would recommend this track over the rest.

    Track 5 ("Hated"): same mid-paced boring riffing and vocals. Completely unoriginal and unimaginative. This was a very poor exit song to an already bland CD.

    Next, the elements of the CD:

    1. Vocals: a cross between Ville Laihiala (Sentenced) and Warrel Dane (Nevermore) with some added power metal cheesiness.
    2. Production: excellent. This is easily the best aspect of this disc.
    3. Talent: the band members can play... I guess. However, I cannot give this any praise or criticism, as all of the riffs and such are very simple and generally insipid.
    4. Originality: none. Misery Inc.'s press release states, "We have developed our musical style with hard training and by gigs. With this SUICIDE SERENADE promo-CD we have finally found our own unique style." Their style? Wrong! Unique? No. Simply go through a Swedish metal catalog and you will realize the ridiculousness of these declarations. Perhaps a more accurate statement would be, "We studied current trends in semi-underground metal bands trying to make it big, and after altering a sound that may have been original at one time, we found it easier to copy the other guys."

    In sum, this band sounds like it's trying really hard to emulate the Gothenburg sound--with the exception that they do not growl at all--but it's not really working. (At least not in a good way.) Two skulls for having some worthy elements, talent, and potential. And yes, those same two for trying to hop onto the Gothenburg sellout bandwagon.
    2 out of 5

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