Reviews

I purposefully left this record sitting for a while.  Boysetsfire were one of my favorite bands five or six years ago and bear much of the responsibility for my transition to modern hardcore music from what was a steady diet of skate punk and old hardcore.  All I mean to say with that is that they are a good middle-ground band, alternatively using hardcore riffs and screams and playing slower, melodic songs.  The vocals are flexible, ranging from throaty screams and high pitched growls to fully sung melodic lines.  It is not as embarrassing as most of the emocore bands which spawned in their wake, mostly because singer Nathan Gray has a pretty amazing range for a punk/hardcore vocalist and writes intelligent and heartfelt lyrics, shifting gears from polemical political rants to emotional, personal lyrics.  Unlike the last release, Tomorrow Come Today, this record is believable and less lyrically strained; the songs flow better without trying so hard to be revolutionary and inspiring.  The music is what you can expect from BSF, but I want to stress again that is is better than TCT.  The guitars move between simple hardcore riffs to shimmering, effects bolstered melodic sections.  Short soundbites lead into many of the songs over noisy intro riffs.  There is some new stuff here too, including horns on a couple of tracks and some piano riffage to flesh out the sound here and there, and a seldom used high pitched growl thrown in on some of the harder stuff.
 
Following the departure of a bassist, a decidedly mediocre last release, and a protracted war for release from their former label, I have to say I am at least pleasantly surprised by Misery Index.  The single (Requiem) is a little bland, as are some of the softer, slower songs, but the overall flow of the album is good and has good variety in sounds to keep the listener engaged.  It is most comparable with After the Eulogy, with heavy hardcore songs broken up with slow melodic ones.  They even rework a song from AtE in the secret track to drive a stronger comparison.  I am not overly impressed, but I also realize that I have outgrown them in a lot of ways, and while this isn’t as good as AtE, even if it was I might not really receive it as well anyway.  Basically, the writing is good and the music is at least comparable to the best stuff they have made.  I highly suggest listening to the whole record through a couple times to get the best feel for it.  Check it out at least.