In 2000 Australia’s Misery released their full length offering Curses on Venomous Records. Seven long years later they finally returned to the studio to record their most recent, and final, effort entitled On Demon Wings. In the seven years between their recent studio offerings the band line-up was trimmed down to three members; drummer Anthony Dwyer, guitarist Scott Edgar and bassist/vocalist Damon Robinson.

It’s been so long since I heard Curses that I can’t even remember what it sounded like, but what I do know is on their latest offering Misery play old school dark death metal in the vein of Incantation and Immolation. The material is slow to mid paced with a dark feel to the production, deep raspy vocals, crushing riffs, wailing Slayer-like leads and powerful drumming.

When I start out listening to On Demon Wings my attention level is high, the material is very dark and catchy, but as each song progresses I lose more and more interest. The album starts out strong with the catchy and powerful "Priest" and "On Demon Wings", but starts to lose momentum by the third track, "Twisting The Knife", which sees the band turning towards a more generic sound.

What goes right with the first handful of tracks is the material is dark and crushing, the band don’t try to complicate things, they keep the material relatively simple but very entertaining. At some point it seems like they got bored of writing the album and started to go for every cliché they can think of. When On Demon Wings begins it sounds like a quality dark death metal album, by the end it sounds like a highly generic slab of Florida death metal.

The performances by all three members is very good, I have no complaints about the guitar and bass playing, vocals or drumming, however, the songwriting was pretty half-hearted and despite the solid performances by all three members, the lack of originality, or at the very least, the lack of consistent songwriting, prevents this album from really going anywhere.

While On Demon Wings does offer up a few interesting moments, it comes up short of being worth recommending. It’s unfortunate a band that lasted 16 years has come to end, however, judging by On Demon Wings it seems like they probably should have wrapped things up sooner. This disc might be worth picking up in a bargain bin, but it won’t keep you entertained for long.

Written By: Teufel