The Swedes of Mister Misery, who rose from their graves in 2018, are already on their third album soberly titled Mister Misery (or III, if the cover is anything to go by). A pace that speaks volumes for the liveliness of this young band, who have clearly understood that being omnipresent is a good way of capturing and keeping attention. Modern, melodic, horrific metalcore, with varied influences (glam, goth, dark cabaret...) and very (very very) demonstrative? Mister Misery continue their macabre dance, endearing, seductive... and sometimes nerve-wracking.
Let's start with what's the most annoying: first of all, there's this artwork that looks sadly bland after the illustrations by Stefan 'GraveArt' Röhm (who has also worked with 69 Eyes and Ice Nine Kills) and whose macabre, comic-book style is sorely lacking here (in the absence of any information, we're not going to shout AI, but we're not far off!) Plus, Mister Misery's omnipresence has meant that they've been bombarding us with singles for several months now, a communication strategy that keeps them in the news but greatly diminishes the interest of releasing an album half of which we already know. Besides, why release it in the middle of summer when the end of October would have been the perfect time! What about the music? Well, there's nothing really new under the sun: Mister Misery continue on their way with their usual energy and enthusiasm, lining up anthems somewhere between the theatricality of Ice Nine Kills, the gothic mannerisms of Motionless in White and the spooky grimaces of Wednesday 13, with breakdowns to shake the neck and multiple inspirations (from Kiss to Trivium, via Avenged Sevenfold).
However, while there are a few reasons to tease them, they also have a real sense of efficiency. This third album is another succession of immediately catchy, unifying tracks for fans of modern metal, with hard-biting riffs and heady choruses. When Mister Misery don't go overboard with their clear-voiced choruses and their emotions a little too forced and extroverted so as not to sound a little overplayed, they demonstrate a real know-how that's well enhanced by their sense of showmanship (rescuing Until the End, with its choirs and the fatalistic emphasis of its chorus, which would have been a good conclusion to the album). We particularly appreciate the heavier moments (The Doomsday Clock) and the outrageousness of tracks like Erzsébet (The Countess) or the irresistible The Crooked Man, for which Harley Vendetta takes on the guise of a disturbing narrator and sets an English folk rhyme to music, mixing macabre poetry with a gloomy circus... Mister Misery has revised his Danny Elfman, much to our delight, and the ride on the ghost train is full of truly delightful moments.
Is the album's eponymous title a more personal approach? Perhaps: Mister Misery is ultimately about Mister Misery. While this lends extra soul and sincerity to this grand theatre of spectres and ghouls (Survival of the Sickest), it also opens the door to the album's weakest moments. Haters, with its bellicose scansions in the background, its martial rhythm and its malice, had everything to please... but giving trolls so much importance that you want to dedicate a song to them for revenge can also seem perhaps a bit paradoxical, navel-gazing and futil. Put it down to the naivety of youth!
Mister Misery goes every which way. Like a funfair attraction, you get shaken up, you have the time of your life, you come out with your hair mussed and wanting to go back... but you also end up saturated with the smell of candyfloss. Generous, enthusiastic, fun: this third album is all these things at once, sometimes to the point of being too much. There's something deeply endearing about this clumsiness, this desire to dust off the grimy peeps (both Kiss and Cradle of Filth, from the cheesy solo to the bloody vampire teeth), to celebrate Halloween every day, to mix uninhibited entertainment with more personal sincerity, to play tough and nasty while letting an exacerbated sensitivity express itself. The macabre story has everything it needs to continue, and we believe it will: with time, Mister Misery will refine his recipe even further... or continue to spread himself too thin, it doesn't matter, in the end: there's nothing dishonourable about offering acts for everyone in this great monstrous circus!
