Review of "Misery Escape" by The Sorrow

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1. Retracing Memories

2. The Escape

3. Burial Bridge

4. My Oblivion

5. A Reason

6. Buried in the Deep

7. A Thin Red Line

8. Perspectives

9. Lost Chapters

10. Dead Home

11. Follow the Lights

"Misery Escape" is the long awaited fourth album by THE SORROW and the first notes show that the Austrians made a huge step forward without losing sight of their roots. With the right mix of brutality and melody, the Amadeus Award winner and frequent guest on European’s biggest festivals shows how to clad heavy riffs, anthemic refrains and grooves in sophisticated arrangements. This is how intelligent and versatile songwriting must sound! Particular emphasis lies on the vocals that range from screams to clear parts that result in catchy refrains. "Misery Escape" is the quintessence of THE SORROW’s qualities and a unique Metalcore manifestation!

The album starts with the track “Retracing Memories,” bringing chugging with technical riffs over top which were really enjoyable and brutal the way the drums go along with it. I’m a little partial to the clean vocals, the more growly type vocals are well done though, but the guitars make this track in my opinion. The breakdown style riffs in the next track, “The Escape,” are really well done the way they are played. I found the solo quite impressive and the guitars as a whole are really great. “Burial Bridge” has some catchy melodic riffs. The guitars about a little over half way are heavy and badass sounding as well. Starting off with the fast paced melodic death metal riff which was awesome is the next track, “My Oblivion,” but when the track mellowed out I was a little bummed. There is just something about melodic riffs and clean vocals that doesn’t sit right with me. Especially the whoa chant, which if anything was delivered better than As I Lay Dying’s new track “Tear Out My Eyes”, but the bass riff after that part made me happy. I liked the breakdown on the track, “A Reason.” If there is anything I enjoy the most from The Sorrow, it would be their guitar work. They can be heavy sounding if they want to be and that’s the side of them I like best.

The melodic riffs and screams on “Buried in the Deep” blended extremely well. There is more woah-ing in this track but at least they do it with style and added a bass diddle into it as well. “A Thin Red Line” has a great mix of death metal and melodic riffs. The acoustic bit half way through, along with the snare rolls and distant screamed vocals, was nice the way it flowed. The technical riffs near the end were really badass, even more so when the bass had its piece. “Perspectives” had a snare march half way through with guitar chugs and a vocal chant which was a nice touch to the track. The melodic riffs are pretty good as well. The next track “Lost Chapters,” is pretty mellow, but the fact that it stays pretty heavy with how slow it was makes it a great one. The bass riff accompanying the melodic riffs was really groovy on the following track. In fact, all of the guitar on “Dead Home” had an amazing groove to the flow and the technical riffs are really amazing as well. As an album ending track, I must say, “Follow the Lights” was a pretty well rounded track, with pretty heavy riffs and melodic bits. When they slowed it down and did clean vocals it kind of made me worry. The second time they did it the backing vocals included made it a little too cheesy, but they followed it up with some delicious chugs.

As much as I dislike most metalcore, I must give credit where credit is due. The Sorrow does what they aim to do very well and can be both melodic and clean or heavy and brutal. They are impressive in both and even if I am not a fan of the genre, I can hear the talent they have. I recommend picking this up if you’re a fan of metalcore.