MISGUIDED AGGRESSION is a Canadian Progressive Groove/Death Metal band, founded in 2004. Since then they’ve released a few recordings like “Fear No Evil” (2005), “Our Savior’s Daydream” (2006) and “The Beast Coast Tour” EP (2007). The band’s last full-length was “Hatchala” (2009), which apparently got several positive reviews. The new album, “Flood The Common Ground” is the first I hear from these Canadians. This release contains 9 tracks, totalling a playtime of… little more than 26 minutes. Yep, short tracks indeed. The longest, “The First Stone”, clocks in after 4 minutes. The release occured on the 28th June.
The album begins with the “Intro”, sounding like a spoken sample of an American soldier about the 9/11 and stuff, plus the indoctrination by the media in that context. “Winter Soldier” follows immediately with violent and brutal Death Metal with melodic touches. The singing, eh, screaming is done in a growling/hoarse kind of way. Those aforementioned melodic touches are not your typical things, but they made me think of how, for example, IWRESTLEDABEARONCE (not at all my cup of tea, by the way) used them. The Metalcore-ish influences come out in the chorus. Since it’s quite a technical song, you have to stay focused here or just flip on it. Overall, not that bad.
“Chasing Sanity” is next and also right after the last note of “Winter Soldier”. Aggressive and violent riffing, blastbeats… a nice start. But then the music slows down a little, Metalcore-style, and the screaming commences. And I’ll be honest, it annoys me. Furthermore, you get the varied compositions in terms of tempos, rhythm, … The music does the title justice, that’s correct. “The Visionary” also kicks in brutally and continues like that, including the screams. Also, where’s the structure? But then comes the intro of “The First Stone”, which I thought was promising. You can hear and feel something fast is to follows and so it does! Blasting Death Metal! Only for a short while, though, then all flows more normally. Musically it’s alright, especially in the drum department. But as the song advances, the breakdowns come in, there is stop-start riffing, the pace increases for a while, followed by the Metalcore-ish stuff once more. First half of the song is alright, but then it just lessens, by manner of speech.
“Humility” also contains the typical ingredients of pounding extreme Metal, screams, and so forth. Oh yes, it’s brutal, it’s destructive, and whatever more. But it didn’t get me, so to speak. I didn’t feel anything here. Neither with “Autonomy”, which sets in with blasting Metal, followed by again the variable rhythms, stop-start playing, … Which you’ll also find in “Hidden Empire” and “Flood The Common Ground”.
I’ve tried to appreciate “Flood The Common Ground” these past few weeks, but alas, it didn’t work. There are some nice ideas throughout the album, no question about that, but the whole just offers too much of the same, even if the guys add technicality in the songs. The material may, however, be suitable if you’re in an angry mood or want to shake of the stress you accumulated during the week. Other than that, I’d say this is more aimed at fans of the band.
More info at www.misguidedaggression.com.
Line-up:
Rob DeMedeiros – vocals
Randy Allcock – guitar
Ben Dobson – guitar
John Ryan Godfrey – bass
Ben Taylor – drums
[xrr rating=2/5 =”Rating: “]
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