Album review: Memphis May Fire – Remade In Misery

'Innovative' is not the word that would immediately be used to describe Memphis May Fire. It’s the reason why their last couple of albums have been mostly eclipsed by the more boundary-breaking fare of their contemporaries – while others are innovating and diversifying, they’re still clinging tightly to the well-worn scream-a-bit-sing-a-bit-crushing-breakdown metalcore formula. Album number seven is eager to excite, hoping to send pulses soaring with a return to their heavier roots, but even with four years of time to think of ideas, these Texans still have nothing new to say.

The best that can be said of Remade In Misery is that it sounds shiny. The production is polished, and the guitars are decent, with the growling riffs of opener Blood & Water the best of the bunch at commanding a sense of electricity. They’re adequate, but the sounds on offer here amount to a stroke on the arm more than a stinging kick in the proverbials. If you can forgive it for being generic, it’s mostly listenable, though nothing much is missed if you press stop a little early, given that closing pop-rising-to-radio-rock ballad The Fight Within is about as limp as wet lettuce.

The real weakness of Remade In Misery, however, is its lyrics. Matty Mullins’ words are a patchwork of cliches, contrived at best, painful at worst. Somebody is vaguely catchy but cannot muster a single original way to express personal pain, while Your Turn declaws its own scorn by reciting pretty much every idiomatic turn of phrase about karma that exists. The poorly drawn anthem of defiance Bleed Me Dry is adolescent in its anger ('If I’ve learned anything, it’s that everybody’s fake… yeah yeah you hate me / Go on and blame me,') and later on, The American Dream combines a banal, soulless attempt at social commentary with a synthetic sounding pop chorus.

This one’s hardly a record to remember, and may be better off forgotten.

Verdict: 2/5

For fans of: We Came As Romans, While She Sleeps, Of Mice & Men

Remade In Misery is released on June 3 via Rise