On August 24, the Amity Affliction made a new album entitled Misery. Misery features hits like, “D.I.E,” “Ivy,” and, “Misery.” Although I’d say this is one of their absolute worst albums, most others would disagree, especially considering its top 1 rating in Australia at debut.

Whenever I listen to music, I tend to search for a deeper conscience more than that of normality, for normality tends to be boring. A song alone is normality, without the true passion and blood it takes, in my opinion, you cannot make a good album. Most modern day Metal Core bands are, in my opinion, losing their touch. You have groups like Asking Alexandria who are going lighter and doing country rock, then you have groups like Amity Affliction that kind of lost their sound years ago. I think that Amity are great musicians, I just don’t feel the passion or involvement anymore. It almost feels as if they are doing it for money, or fame, instead of for finding more about who they are as people.

In their defense, however, I don’t think their message or style can be accurately described within their new sub-genre, Electronic Core. Electronic Core tends to be more musically involved, because it usually plays over the guitar which is the monumental instrument in the tone of a song, based on its tuning. The guitar can be tuned high, and sound happy, then and can be tuned low to sound sad. The electronic keyboard plays over Amity’s guitarist on occasion, removing a lot of the song’s possible depth and meaning.

There are Electronic Core bands, such as when Asking Alexandria recorded “The Black” where there is a lot of depth and meaning to the song, so whether or not it’s a viable excuse is up for consideration. Asking Alexandria wrote “The Black” to display power and greed in a society which flows ever so faintly with those emotions. However, the most meaningful song on “Misery” would be “D.I.E”, which is about solely the inevitability of death, which in my opinion is a very dull subject not deserving of a song nor to be the best song of an album.

Overall, The Amity Affliction’s new album Misery sounds good musically, but lyrically lacks. In my opinion, depth in music is of great importance, and whenever you take away that very importance, the song lacks the exact potential it could’ve received, simply if it was of depth and emotion. Whether or not the new album was supposed to lack meaning, I believe it’s one of the absolute worst Amity albums to this date, and I certainly hope to see improvement. A long time ago, Amity was on top in Metal Core, making extremely meaningful pieces, only to fade away for a few years and become who they are today. Although accumulating a massive listener base, I believe that Amity hasn’t achieved success morally, but I know that they have the very potential to.