One of the OGs of metalcore, Misery Signals gave fans proper time to stew ahead of the release of their fourth studio album Ultraviolet. But as the old adage goes about good things coming to those who wait, Ultraviolet is pure intensity and savage intent from jump street, and what good fan doesn't want that?
With the album marking the return of all founding members – Ryan Morgan (lead guitar), Branden Morgan (drums), Jesse Zaraska (vocals), Stu Ross (rhythm guitar) and Kyle Johnson (bass) – and the first with the original voice of Misery Signals, Zaraska, since Of Malice and the Magnum Heart, Ultraviolet presents the band saluting the past while also soldiering forward through our turbulent present days.
Guitarist Ryan Morgan caught up with Metal Injection to talk the long-awaited return album with the original lineup, growing pains in the studio, chemistry with his brother Branden, his defining albums and gateway metal bands, and the current state of metalcore in 2020.
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On Mood Surrounding Album Release
I guess the first word that comes to mind is relieving, just because I've been trying to do it for a long time and intending to do it for a long time in whatever form it was going to take. But I'm glad that we were able to get it here. I feel a lot of relief because I know the more time that has passed, the more sort of pressure that I felt. Not that anyone's being cruel to me about it or impatient about it, really. People have been, on the whole, cool and patient. But yeah, I guess there's just that pressure that I'm adding to myself every time a year passes and hoping to get this thing out. It just kind of builds, so it's nice to be on the other end of it here.
On Original Lineup Reunion
I mean, this sort of was kicked off by the 10 year anniversary tour that we did. In 2014 we were celebrating 10 years of our first record Of Malice and the Magnum Heart being out, and we wanted to do tours with that group of people from that record. And so we did the tour, and it was the first time that all of us had been sort of back together. But it definitely wouldn't have been possible if it was a short amount of time I don't think because, as you said, it wasn't like the cleanest breakup.
Initially, when Jesse left the band, there was still a lot of things kind of left unsaid and some hurt feelings and things like that. So the fact that 10 years have passed since we tried to be creative with each other was the big reason that we were able to do so. And then once we were out on the road playing songs and we had such a good experience on that tour, this kind of felt like a natural next step to try and create something again together. But yeah, it was a bit of a process trying to get everyone on the same page creatively.
I think the sort of interpersonal friendship level thing was very organic and it was nice to just be back around each other again and have those good experiences of these awesome shows on the reunion tour together. So that sort of all kind of fell into place nicely and naturally, but I think once we started writing things together creatively, it took a lot of feeling out to decide the direction that everyone was on board for. And I think there were some varied visions and stuff, and that has a lot to do with the amount of time that we took because we would start writing things and we kind of one step forward, two steps back with a lot of them, try out some different directions. We bailed on a lot of ideas before we started to get the rhythm of what this album was going to be like.
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On Growing Pains in the Studio
I think everyone else instrumentally was pretty smooth as far as being in studio, because we've all been doing other projects or have recorded on other Misery Signals records. Kyle and Stu both did three of the four other records, so they had been in the studio with me and my brother more often than Jesse had. So I think it was a little more of a process for him to pick up those kind of pieces … Jesse did great when he found his stride and it just I think it took awhile for him to get comfortable.
We've all made so many records together, and I include Greg Thomas in this process, who produced a lot of the vocals and did the mix of the album. He was one of the primary people I worked on Absent Light with, and he was playing guitar in the band at the time. Even Greg has made so many records and been in the studio so much, so when he was recording Jesse he was kind of in a position to be like, well, why don't you try it like this? And give some direction.
I think that Jesse is not used to that really as much as some of us who've been making more studio albums have been. So there was a little bit of a kind of push back there, just as far as like who's making decisions now? Who's directing what? So it's kind of difficult when you have a bunch of hands in the pot because we had a number of producers working on the record as well.
Greg was working on it. Devin Townsend helped produce some of the vocal stuff. We worked with Matt Bayles, an incredible producer in Seattle, and he did some pre-production and drum recording with us, but we were working on the songs and the arrangements and stuff. So there was a lot of people that kind of had their hands in that creative pot, particularly in the recording phase. And so there was some weirdness, I guess, surrounding it when there's that many people working on the record.
On Chemistry with Brother Branden
My brother and I have been playing music together forever and for us, just to comment on that, it is always easy. We have a really good relationship in that respect where everything just kind of works and we don't have much social difficulty with each other. So that's a pretty amicable and good relationship. It honestly couldn't be better between him and I. A lot of credit to Branden's just I guess, his attitude, like he's super low key and chill and doesn't take much offence to anything.
He's so skilled at his craft. As far as people spending time on their instrument, he's super focused and rehearsed and he can kind of do anything on the drums without too much trouble. So there's not a lot of fear coming from him about like, I want it to be like this otherwise it won't be cool. I mean, he's not covering anything up because he can kind of just do anything. So the fact that he's still level headed, it's pretty hard to get in a fight with Branden. Honestly, there's no tension between him and I.
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On Fan-Response to 'Ultraviolet'
I believe in my heart of hearts this is a record that most fans of the band are wanting and it delivers. You know, as far as I understand what the fans want from our band, because I can't speak for everyone, but it seems to me the majority of them are pushing for something exactly like what we're giving them here, which is just a concentrated dose of the good parts of Misery Signals.
It's musical, but it's not like over-the-top progressive, melodic, but it's also super heavy and it's got Jesse just at his like barest, you know what I mean? Where it's not too deeply encoded, it's like immediately kind of emotionally accessible to the listener. And I think those are some of the parts that works for people the most in Misery Signals, and I think we've really just kind of boiled it down to really focus on all those aspects on this record. And so time will tell, but I'm really thinking that we have something that people are going to respond to here.
On Metalcore in 2020
I think Darkest Hour came up with a name for that tour (Death to False Metalcore). And it's almost like kind of a jab at the idea that metalcore should be this pure thing. So that's a little bit tongue in cheek as far as taking shots at bands that aren't truly metalcore. I don't honestly care what you call your band or what's going on so much in the current moment of the genre. I'm not super paying attention to that or super dialed into that. So I'm probably not one to speak for that.
I know there's a lot of cool bands that do have similar elements to Misery Signals. And I think that we've been pointed to as an influence for a lot of bands, and that's super cool. But as far as what is or isn't metalcore, I don't care or really entertain that conversation too much.There's great bands making this kind of music right now and pushing forward. If it's heavy, it's heavy. And I like that.
On His Gateway Metal Bands
I mean, initially Metallica was the gateway to just like distorted guitar and metal in general. But even moving beyond that Sepultura too, because some of those recordings early on had a big effect on me. And just as far as adding groove, which I think is really one of the things that hardcore in general and metalcore as well, really operates upon is groovy heavy music, you know? I would point to Sepultura for that.
On His Go-to Metal Albums
I would probably point to Destroy Erase Improve by Meshuggah, just for the amount of insane polyrhythms and things that are happening. That album kind of broke my mind a little bit, made me think about music differently. So I would point to that. And then I would also point to Cave In, Beyond Hypothermia, just for riffing and just progressiveness and melody.
On Future Plans & Returning to 'Normal'
That's the ideal man, getting these songs out on the road and playing them. We kind of followed that vibe of the songs that were best live were best for the record, because there was a bit of paring down. There's a lot of material written, as I mentioned before, and like some stuff that we abandoned or kind of moved away from. But there was a bunch of material that we went through and everything that felt great when we were playing through it was the stuff that we were focusing on. And I know those are the songs that are going to deliver live. So I'm really eager to play these things out and let people hear them in kind of their native context not recorded, just that live version, because I know they work and we've made enough errors to eliminate the ones that aren't working as well.
I would love to have touring back on the table and everyone being healthy again. I guess there's so many things going on right now. It's hard to just pick one. I mean, the pandemic is centreal but so is social change and social unrest and I'm really encouraged by the amount of like intensity that we're seeing from kind of social justice activists right now. So I would love to see that continue and make some more successes, because I think it's gained a lot of momentum in the last few months. So it's not like I'm an advocate of things just "going back to normal".
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