REVIEW: Miss May I – At Heart

Artist: Miss May I
Album: At Heart
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Rise

First and foremost, this album blew away all of the presuppositions that I already had of a metalcore band signed to Rise Records. At Heart is heavy, really heavy. To describe it plainly, it’s metal with a side of “-core”. The clean vocals are very much melodic in their own way without coming off as poppy, the guitars aren’t endlessly chugging away, and the drums are actually changing up their pace on a regular basis. Not saying that there aren’t breakdowns in this album, there’s still a good amount scattered around. There appears to be no overproduction done to this release; more notably, this release has been Miss May I’s first full length album recorded without everyone’s favorite producer, Joey Sturgis.

Levi Benton, the band’s vocalist, has a very distinctive-yet-familiar voice on this record. At times, it reminds me of Haste the Day vocalist, Stephen Keech’s vox while at other moments it almost seems to be imitating what Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying has done throughout his career. What sets Miss May I apart in terms of vocals, are the cleans provided by the band’s bassist, Ryan Neff, they are neither too high, nor too low; they’re just right, though they could use a few more more hooks to catch the listener’s attention.

“Hey Mister”, the first full song on the album (after the introduction) takes things off with a bouncy-riff and soaring chorus that helps to set the bar for rest of the album. “Opening Wounds” has a very inspiring  pre-chorus with lines like ‘I will stand on my own two feet, and wash away the blood in my mouth. I will stand on my own two feet, and feel the way I want to be.’ “Gold to Rust” talks about becoming jaded by the tangibles of life. The album’s closer, “The Ballad of a Broken Man”, brings back many feelings of loss and regret in a really powerful way, which I think makes for a great closer to a decent album.

This album is likely one that you’ll want to blast out of your stereo with subs pushing it while hanging out with friends at a party, driving through traffic or any other place where metalcore feels like the proper answer to the situation. Extended listening to this will likely wear anybody out, even when accompanied with a lyric sheet to help you maintain your attention to everything that’s going on, this album becomes very bland, very fast.

SCORE: 6/10
Review written by: Adrian Garza

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5 Responses to “REVIEW: Miss May I – At Heart”

  1. Axeassassin5 says:

    I would like to point out that Ryan Neff (their bassist) actually does the cleans.

  2. Alex says:

    Like Axeassassin5 said, Levi doesn’t do the clean vocals. Ryan (bass) does.

  3. Uraretard says:

    Your review is invalid because their bassist Ryan neff does cleans, do your research before you review a band dumbass

  4. Adrian Garza says:

    Thanks for the heads up, I fixed it!

  5. sup bro says:

    Production is awful. There’s over-produced, there’s natural production but here it’s just too raw and mushy. Kick is way too loud. Good luck with hearing the bass as well.