The Amity Affliction "Misery" Album Review

 
By: James Southworth
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

I always hate to talk down on a band who I've found to be consistent and interesting within their genre. The Amity Affliction certainly fit in that criteria. I've loved so much of this band's work. I discovered them with their lead single "Pittsburgh" and the album "Let the Ocean Take Me". I fell in love with their sound. They knew what works for them, but have also kept their formula original enough to be interesting (mostly). One could debate that "Chasing Ghosts" and "Let the Ocean Take Me" sound similar. I would argue that there's enough variation in the two to make them distinct. The same can't be said for "This Could Be Heartbreak", which came out two years ago. I was excited for the album upon hearing the lead single "I Bring The Weather With Me" (which I still say is the band's best song to date), as well as the title track. Unfortunately, the rest of the album felt like a carbon copy of "Ocean". There were some really underwhelming moments, and there were others that were just really bad. The album felt like it addressed mental health and depression in an overdone way. So, I was hesitantly excited to hear that the band were changing up their sound to be more of the  electronic rock genre this year. The lead single "Ivy (Doomsday)" made me even more excited, as it sounded fresh and interesting; maybe this band could perfect experimentation. Unfortunately, what we got in "Misery" is an album that feels overblown and safe at the same time. Too often this release uses electronics in the wrong ways, and too often the themes feel rehashed and familiar.

The album gets off to a good start with opener and lead single "Ivy (Doomsday)". This song is undoubtedly a highlight on the album as a whole. The song does something that none of the other cuts really do here: it combines the sound of old Amity with their new electronic/rock flare. I think that's a big reason of why a majority of fans were on board with this single more than the second one (which I'll be talking about later). When Amity writes good lyrics, they write really good lyrics. I love the visual imagery in this track, as clean vocalist Ahren Stringer compares his toxic personality to a poisonous plant: "I will cover you like ivy/And choke out all the light/Baby, I could be your Doomsday/Let you know 'We'll be all right'". Because of how unique that line is, it becomes instantly memorable. The chorus in this track should hook you in right away. Joel Birch shifts effortlessly between his signature screams, and surprisingly, singing. His cleans are a mixed bag on the album as a whole, but they work here. This song also has one of the few breakdowns present on this release. That helps this heart wrenching track have the emotional weight it needs. "Holier Than Heaven" is another great moment, having more of a straight up rock feel. Ahren even lets his cleans have a bit more grit to them then normal, which I really appreciated. The song uses the Devil and God as representations for the struggles that Ahren and Birch both have with their mental health. It takes a good long while after this track before we get anything good again. Thankfully this album ends out with three good tracks. "Drag the Lake" is my favorite moment on the album as a whole, simply because I love how this track embraces its electronics fused sound in a way that actually works. The use of synths is more subtle here, and Ahren has a beautiful falsetto. Also, I know it's somewhat of a joke between fans how much Amity uses water imagery, but I actually find their songs that use water to be some of their best. That definitely goes for this track. "Beltsville Blues" works for its good guitar work, and "Set Me Free" is musically dynamic.

For all the good tracks on here (even the really good tracks like "Ivy" or "Drag the Lake"), there are so many awful moments on this album that make it suffer. This release is front loaded with some really bad songs. If there hadn't been more good moments on this release, I may have rated it lower than "This Could Be Heartbreak". Some of the bad moments here are far worse than the bad moments on that album. But then again, the good moments here, on average, are better than the good moments on "Heartbreak". Right after being on the high of "Ivy", we get to a rather significant low in the second single "Feels Like I'm Dying". Don't get me wrong: I am all for a band experimenting. I think it can be a good thing to do every once in a while, especially for a band like Amity who were getting stuck in the same musical rut. But this track is not a good example of how to experiment musically. The use of computerized beeps and vocal manipulations throughout this track are annoying at best, and laughable at worst. I think I see what the band is trying to go for with the using the higher pitched electronic vocals. They're using them to symbolize a sense of detachment. Because of Ahren and Joel's struggles with mental health, they feel more like robots than actual people. But these manipulated vocals sound more like a chipmunk than anything that could be taken remotely seriously. These vocal effects are thankfully not used all the time, but the overbearing production of the electronics appears repeatedly. This can be seen in a song like "Burn Alive", which seems to be trying to be a revival of the EDM genre. There's not a thing about the cut that I can remember. The chorus is cliched, the verses from Ahren strangely lack passion, and the synths sometimes sound louder than the vocals. For a band who is trying to experiment, they still play this experimentation strangely safe. They're replacing their cliched metalcore sound from "Heartbreak" to now a cliched pop/EDM sound.

Things get really bad very fast after this song. The title track is very painful to listen to. It's easily one of the worst moments on the album. The song builds its title off of the generic phrase "misery loves company". It does nothing that interesting with this phrase, and instead just uses it verbatim in the chorus. If that isn't "playing it safe", then I don't know what is. The chorus is insufferable for another reason. It also uses vocal manipulation, and somehow it's even worse than on "Feels Like I'm Dying". Like with the aforementioned song, the title track is trying to use these manipulations to get across a feeling of detachment or hopelessness. But once again, the manipulation is so ridiculous and overbearing that I couldn't help but laugh. Plus, Joel Birch's screams in this song don't sound fitting up against the clean electronic sound ("clean", in this case, is not meant to be a compliment). "Kick Rocks" doesn't fare much better. It's mainly stripped away of unneeded synths, which is a nice change, but the song is still just dull. The chorus is reliant on Birch's scream/sing combo that he does over and over again on the album. It was a cool idea for a track like "Ivy", but at this point it starts to be more like a crutch. I suppose the band is trying their best to find a way for Birch to contribute vocally against this less heavy sound, but they aren't utilizing him in the best form. After this comes the forgettable track "Black Cloud"; nothing much to say about it. And then there's "D.I.E." This band is known for doing their text message styled song titles with every album. Every one of them has had varying success ("FML" is the best, and "OMGIMY" is insufferable). This one may actually be the worst of them all, just because of how unbelievably repetitive it is. There's hardly any other lyrics other than Ahren/Joel literally spelling out the song's title. This song also has one of the most awful lyrical moments I've heard in any track this year: "D.I.E., D.I.E. M.Y. D.A.R.L.I.N.G". I promise I'm not joking. Ahren spells out every letter like he's teaching the listener the alphabet. It's so woefully misguided. Frankly, I'm shocked that every band member was okay with it, and not a one of them suggested that maybe, just maybe, they should work on the song a little bit more.

The closing song "The Gifthorse" is hardly worth mentioning. I can tell it has some personal value to Birch who lost someone. I just can't feel the weight of the track at all, as it's very bare in structure. The usage of only booming synths takes away any potential impact. I'm not gonna lie, I'm very disappointed in this release. I may even rank it as my most disappointing release of this year so far. I was actually pretty optimistic about this release after hearing the lead single. I thought that The Amity Affliction might just be able to pull off this experimental sound. Unfortunately, they really fall flat on their faces more often than not. There are some great songs here, and they show what this album could've been like in a perfect world. But there are also some really awful moments, ones that are among the worst of the band's career. I really hate to say this, but I think that "D.I.E" is one of the worst songs I've heard this year. It will most likely make my top 10 worst songs of 2018. For the most part, I just can't get behind "Misery". Besides the good songs I mentioned, you'd be better off skipping out on this one.

Favorite Songs: "Drag The Lake", "Ivy (Doomsday)", "Holier Than Heaven"
Least Favorite Songs: "D.I.E.", "Misery", "Feels Like I'm Dying", "Burn Alive", "Kick Rocks"