Miss May I - At Heart

If you’ve read my review on Miss May I’s second album, Monument, you know that it’s one of my favorite metalcore albums ever. So knowing that, it should be pretty obvious how excited I was when I heard the news of a new Miss May I record. Here’s what I was hoping for: Monument part 2. But, knowing the band and their strong dedication to making every album new and unique from all the others, I knew that I wasn’t going to get exactly what I was asking for. But I knew that Miss May I wasn’t going to abandon their signature sound altogether, they were going to add something new onto the sound that Monument brought to the table; and that’s exactly what they did.

I don’t know why, but ever since I started listening to all of these bands that have official logos that are used on every single album (i.e. Suffocation, Deicide, Nightwish, etc.) it bothers me when bands change their “logo” which each album. I’m not saying that changes my opinion on the album, but for some stupid reason, it really bothers me; sometimes to the point where I will take the original album artwork and put the old or better logo on the cover myself with Photoshop. It also bothers me when bands have super cool logos and choose not to use it at all on the album cover; pretty much leaving the album cover blank with just the artwork and no band name/logo or album title. Ok, now that I’m done bitching about that, I NEED to tell you about this record!

The guitar distortion and the sound of everything doesn’t really sound much different from Monument...which is good because it sounds awesome. This is the first Miss May I album to have an intro track. And to be honest, it really isn’t anything special other than a VERY, VERY gradual buildup that leads into the first track, Hey Mister. I’m going to spend a minute to talk about this song because it really speaks the whole album in one song. One thing that I’ve always loved about Miss May I is the amount of enraging emotion and anger that they cram into their songs. Hey Mister has more anger in it than any other Miss May I song I’ve EVER heard. If you can’t see where I’m going with this, I’m saying that this album is a hell of a lot heavier than both Monument and Apologies are for the Weak COMBINED.

Their bassist is the guy that does all of the singing, and he’s always stuck out to me. He has a singing voice that’s EXTREMELY crisp and razor-sharp that pierces the air with laser precision. As far as musicianship and skill goes, I have to give credit to the drummer for being one of the best metalcore drummers besides the drummer for Mnemic. That’s not an exaggeration, the only reason I call him ONE of the best drummers is because there’s always the possibility of me uncovering a metalcore band with a better drummer, but besides the Mnemic drummer and the Threat Signal drummer, this guy is the top dog from what I’ve heard.

This album is nothing short of being flawless. Other than the increased use of head-crushing breakdowns, there’s nothing at all about this album that fails to amaze me. I would give this record 19/20. Miss May I is one of the best metalcore bands in existence and I cannot stress this enough other than to just say “LISTEN TO THESE GUYS!”