It is always refreshing, and somewhat a pleasure, when I come across a band I can't rightly place my finger on when it comes to genres. In the case of MIST OF MISERY and their EP "Temple of Stilled Voices" I find that said finger is all over the map. There is a tone of Black and Doom to be found here, a combination I personally don't see too much. However there are some Death and melodic elements as well.

Opening with "Bleak Autumn", the song sort of acts as an overture for most of what you are going to hear - slow and calculated Blackened Doom. Wonderfully, the pace climbs to some pretty epic Goth-rock inspired heights and ends with an excellent acoustic moment to mix things up. However, after that is where the problems arise. MIST OF MISERY, for some odd reason, found it to be a good idea to basically copy the whole first third of the song twice more. You literally listen to the same three sections in a row without much changes - in fact, it actually feels like the same song just ends and starts again every time. This effort to pad out the EP goes on to "Window Mirror Image", where the same process repeats again. I don't honestly feel this was, at all, needed. Without the copy and pasting, it really does feel like there are whole songs there. One short, solid, track is better than one drawn-out copy-and-paste fest.

As well, every song here just feels like a continuation of the last with not too much difference in creative direction. The vocals are mostly to blame for the same-old feeling you just about immediately get. They aren't bad by any means but they are most certainly not varied, especially with the title track consists of straight up screaming for the most part (as in, no lyrics, just screaming for no real rhyme or reason). It's really a shame because MIST OF MISERY has a lot of potential.

MIST OF MISERY has brought forth a rather interesting, yet somewhat repetitive, release with their EP "Temple of Stilled Voices". While all of the music elements come together magnificently, telling a story all on their own - the vocals teeter on a strange line between death and black metal (echoing the styles of bands such as IMPIETY). This isn't all bad, MIST OF MISERY is wholly a good experience and very experimental. It would just be better if some songs (such as "Bleak Autumn") didn't feel as though they were doubled (sometimes tripled) just for padding.