THE NEW LOW — Misery (review)

THE NEW LOW — Misery album cover Album · 2012 · Crossover Thrash Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Time Signature
Black hearts...

Genre: crossover

What do you get when you crossbreed metal and hardcore? Metalcore, you say. Well, no, not necessarily. You see, before metalcore, there was crossover which combines thrash metal and hardcore punk, and which has much more edge and tends to be much more abrasive than metalcore.

The New Low from the hometown of none other than Hans Christian Andersen (it's called Odense, in case you didn't know) play crossover metal, drawing on both thrash metal and hardcore, also infusing elements from hardrock, traditional metal and more old school punk rock into their style, and on "Misery", they show that crossover thrash still is awesome and that it is still possible to be innovative within that genre.

After a citation of William Blake's 'Auguries of Innocence', the title track kicks off the album with, perhaps surprisingly, an energetic old school heavy metal guitar figure in the same vein as the main riff of Iron Maiden's 'Back in the Village' - the track quickly takes on a more primitive punk-thrash character, which rocks hard and wonderfully aggressively, and there is also a set of very moshing friendly midpaced sections in this track. 'Sick of You' is a slightly heavier affair, which introduces both hard rock twang and groove into the overall sound of the album. And these elements characterize the remainder of the album, which seamlessly and very efficiently changes back and forth between hardcore punk, thrash metal, groove, traditional metal and hard rock as well as some more alternative metal oriented stuff.

I think that all tracks on the album are very strong - they are generally simple (but not dumb) and aggressive, but still The New Low manage to cram a lot of different elements into each track, and that generates a lot of energy and variation. With an average song length of about 2:40 minutes, the tracks on the album are thus very compact, which I appreciate.

The production is unpolished and that goes well with the angry street attitude of the music itself (just check the angrily screamed lead vocals and the riot choruses that pop up in some of the tracks), and the musicianship is characterized by both feel and professionalism.

Drawing on a lot of different influences and combining these into their own brand of crossover metal, The New Low have created a piece of work in "Misery" which should appeal broadly to fans of such diverse acts as Agnostic Front, The Misfits, S.O.D., The Kandidate, Pantera, Pro-Pain, Discharge, Metallica, Generation Kill, and Anthrax. Fans of crossover metal should definitely check this release out, which might also appeal to fans of hardcore punk, thrash metal, and sludge metal.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed