Misery Index

Relapse is losing its edge and its reputation as genre leaders is steadily fading. While it’s signed some of the most important acts to grace the aggressive music scene and the name is synonymous with innovation, the past few years have been sub-par when it comes to pushing the envelope, with but a few notable exceptions in the fold. These days it seems the label’s primary concern is profit margins and the bottom line is signing bands that can appeal to the largest common denominator, though not necessarily mainstream. Misery Index are yet another addition to the increasingly long list of decent but essentially stagnated groups of heavy metal wagon hoppers; put pointedly, their technically apt Exodus-meets-Slayer worship gets real boring, real fast. It’s not that they’re horribly wretched or glaringly untalented, it’s that they’re nothing special: Relapse used to be better than that. It’s nice to see bands getting more recognition and support as aggressive music continues to claw its way up from the depths of hell, but now that there’s more capital making its way into the industry, funds are freed to support the half-assed hacks that don’t really do anything creative. Mo’ money, mo’ problems?