Absence

Mist of Misery’s music is exactly what you’d expect from a band called Mist of Misery. It’s melancholic symphonic Black Metal, with lots of atmosphere. This album was a solid effort, but there weren’t many WOW moments, and the music was a little formulaic.

The album starts of with a depressing keyboard piece “Melancholic thoughts” which is a good precursor of what’s to come on the album. The rest of the album is shifting back and forth between depressing black metal and depressing symphonic sections with some sounds of nature added in such as a bird cawing or running water which enhances the atmosphere.

The black metal on this album consists of shrieking black metal vocals, those dark and beautiful guitar and string melodies, boring drumming, and some decent riffing. This album doesn’t have much interesting going on rhythmically, which not uncommon when it comes to black metal. The base goes basically unheard, and the drumming just alternates between blast beats and boring 4/4 drum rhythms. Luckily, the lead guitar and keyboard/synths make up for it. “Epitaph of Pentinence” is probably the the best song off of this album thanks to the lovely guitar and string melodies, but really, it’s not a whole lot different from the other black metal songs of this album. As I said, few stand out moments and a bit formulaic.

The non black metal parts are quite nice and go well with the album. “Final Departure” is a good interlude track that actually has more of a nature atmosphere than a melancholy atmosphere. With nice soft guitar melodies accompanied by the sound of wind blowing through the trees. “Serenity in Nothingness” is a good outro for the album and sounds actually somewhat hopeful and less depressing than the rest of the album.

There are better bands out there that can be categorized as symphonic, atmospheric, or depressing black metal, however this is the only time I’ve seen the 3 styles blended with some success. I would like to hear another album from Mist of Misery that has improved upon some of the weaknesses on “Absence” and is more memorable. Overall “Absence” was a fine slab of dark metal, and I would recommend this album to those intrigued by the idea of “melancholic, symphonic, atmospheric, nature black metal”.