My first exposure to Misery Inc. was through their demo Suicide Serenade. I liked the dark and heavy yet melodic style that leaned far into Sentenced territory; an aspect that continued with their first full length album Yesterday's Grave. That album also saw the appearance of a more riff-driven and aggressive sound that at times bordered on both melodic death metal and thrash metal. A couple of years later, Misery Inc. is back with their second full-length album Random End, on a new label and with some major changes not only in the line-up of the band but also in musical direction. Vocalist Jukkis Huuhtanen is gone and has been replaced by not one but two new lead vocalists. Jules Naveri handles most of the vocal duties with Niko Mankinen providing death metal growls and screams. With these changes, Misery Inc. has in a sense "modernized" their sound and have taken aim at a wider market and perhaps even North America with a new style not unlike the newer "modernized" sounds of In Flames, Shadows Fall and Soilwork.

All the melody and emotion of the band's previous work is still ever present with Random End but they've turned it up a notch in the heaviness department. Booming and chunky riffs spew continuously out of their guitars and gives tracks like Hymn For Life, Yesterday's Grave, Source Of Fatal Addiction and Out Of Here Alive a healthy dose of thrash metal mayhem. The first single is the track Fallen Rage and this one's a great showcase for the dual vocalist approach of the new line-up. A very melodic yet heavy track, the death-styled vocal accents work very well in unison with the clean vocals for the choruses. The death-style vocals are usually blended in with most of the chorus sections to the songs on this album but there's a couple of tracks where several verses are sung in that style and to my ear, it brings an unwelcome metalcore style to their sound.

For a few tracks namely Apologies Denied, Cyanide and the ending track Out Of Here Alive, Misery Inc. tread lightly into technical prog metal territory with dark accents and even atmospheric keyboard effects. The production is killer with an awesome crunch to the guitars, bass and drums sound. The crisp low end heaviness and de-tuned guitars make for a solid workout on your speakers/headphones but does get a little monotonous and more dynamics with the music would certainly help a lot.

As far as categorizing genres of metal, this album could present a problem to those bent on slapping a defined label on each and every metal band that they hear. Aside from the heavy de-tuned chugging thrash metal riffs, the melodies and choruses are more traditional or power metal influenced and the intensity brought on by the extreme heaviness, growls and screams ventures into melodic death metal territory. Despite the heaviness, this album's just bursting with melody; a combination that is such a rare animal anymore and this album's certainly one of the better examples that I've heard lately. Depending on your tastes, there's something here for everyone and for those who can only take harsh vocals in small doses and love very heavy yet melodic metal, this album would be a good introduction to the more extreme forms of metal. For those who love the more U.S. style modern metal and enjoy the last few In Flames albums, this one's right up your alley.

I don't fully embrace all the changes made to Misery Inc.'s sound over the last album Yesterday's Grave but there's no denying the improvement in sound, production and song writing. I love the paradox of extreme heaviness and catchy melodies and this album is more extreme in that aspect than ever before. The Sentenced influences are still there but are not as obvious as before. This band just keeps getting better and the stiff competition with other fellow Finnish bands I'm sure was a major factor in the direction of this album. Fans of In Flames, Soilwork, Children Of Bodom and who love the melodic sense of a band like Machine Men should definitely check this album out. With a new label and hopefully a wider distribution deal to go along with it, this album's going to be big one for these guys.