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Album Reviews : Miss May I – Shadow Inside

By on May 18, 2017

Miss May I are one of those bands that the few tracks I’ve heard from them I’ve always enjoyed but have never gotten around to listening to any of their records in full. I was surprised to find out that Shadows Inside is actually the band’s sixth effort. It’s also their first on new label, SharpTone.

The album kicks off with the title track and wowee is it one hell of an opener! In many ways it’s a very typical metalcore song with screaming verses and singing choruses, soaring guitars and big drums but damn it’s a catchy song. One thing becomes quickly obvious on this album, unclean vocalist Levi Benton and clean singer Ryan Neff compliment each other extremely well.

One of the great things about Shadows Inside is it doesn’t stick to the typical metalcore formula throughout the whole album like many other bands do. Especially on tracks like Never Let Me Stay (a mellower track with probably the catchiest chorus on the album) and Crawl (an almost hard rock song complete with a breakdown which shows a different side to the band).

It’s hard to pick stand-out tracks on an album like this where each song is so powerful and could easily be chosen as a single to represent the album. Speak of singles, the first single to be released from the album, Lost In The Grey (a song about finding hope to push you out of a complacent and stale life, something I’m sure many can connect with) comes in, surprisingly, as the second last song on the album but it’s easy to see why it was chosen as the lead single. It’s a very typical Miss May I song that fans will adore.

At ten songs and just over half an hour, this is a very short record (but looking back at their previous albums this is nothing new for the Ohio five-piece bar 2012’s At Heart). It’s definitely a contender for metalcore album of the year and one you should definitely look at getting your ears around. I now wonder what I’ve been missing out on with the band’s previous five albums and plan on getting my own ears around them very soon!

Band: Miss May I
Album: Shadow Inside
Year: 2017
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Sharptone Records
Origin: USA

About

Matt Barton loves all things rock and metal. Everyone from Slipknot to The Living End. He enjoys going to gigs and discovering new music. Matt also writes for Heavy Mag and is currently attempting to write his debut novel.