MISTH – Rise Of A New Day (2013)

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Female fronted Swedish band MISTH may be new in name, but all members are veterans of the Swedish music scene.

The sextet are presenting debut “Rise Of A New Day”, just released on CD in Scandinavia and for the moment, digitally only worldwide.

If you noticed above, I said ‘music scene’ and not metal because extraordinary lead singer Maria Rådsten has never been in a metal-related band before. Die hard fans of Swedish pop music and Eurovision may recognize the name Maria Rådsten as she was a member of the group One More Time which actually placed 3rd in Eurovision in 1996.

After listening Maria’s incredible performance on Misth’s debut album “Rise Of A New Day”, I would say she definitely has made the right choice moving into the rocking territory.

To form Misth, Maria teamed up with members of the band Mercury Fang, noted for playing hard rock ala Whitesnake with a distinct metal edge.

Although “Rise Of A New Day” certainly has its roots in progressive metal, the music definitely has some hard rock influences, spiced with accessible riffs, catchy choruses and some very nice harmonies.

The prog metal recipe developed by Misth infusing more traditional hard elements is certainly quite original, as the melodies fly sharp and bouncy over the elaborated heavy-prog arrangements. Maria Rådsten’s melodious vocal variations work equally well on the progressive metal portions of the album as well in the more hard rocking numbers.

“Rise Of A New Day”, “Something Better Change”, the rhythmically rich “Unknown” and the quite heavy “Into The Void” are plenty of prog metal overtones.

But as said, Mysth does not get stuck on just one sound. Cuts like “Life’s Arena”, “Something Better Change” or the slower “Everyday” are definitely in the hard rocking side of things, featuring choruses even flirting with Melodic Hard Rock.

Taking the best of both worlds, opener “I Call Your Name” and one of the highlights; “Day Of Retribution”, clearly express the band’s quality and versatility mixing the genres.

New Swedish outfit Misth tries to blend two different styles in their debut CD “Rise Of A New Day”, and I must say the band emerges victorious from their purpose. This a progressive album in two directions: Prog Metal and progressive Hard Rock, and both work really well for Misth, sounding homogeneous, solid as a rock.

Although Maria stands out on vocals and is very high in the mix, don’t despair as the musicianship on “Rise Of A New Day” is excellent. The twin guitars construct the main musical sound whether playing the melodic solos, heavy progressive layers or even some straight Hard Rock crunchy riffs.

Keyboards have an important role too creating nice atmospheres, and the rhythm section is flexible to the style chosen in each occasion.

Impressive, very recommended debut.

01 – I Call Your Name

02 – Life’s Arena

03 – Rise Of A New Day

04 – Everyday

05 – Something Better Change

06 – Into The Void

07 – Unknown

08 – Sending Down An Angel

09 – In Or Out

10 – Day Of Retribution

Maria Rådsten – Vocals

Håkan Granat – Guitar

Fredrik Glimbrand – Guitar

Jorgen Schelander – Keyboards

Olle Brodén – Bass

Martin Larsson – Drums

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