Beautiful, majestic, epic; all words that came to mind upon listening to this 4-song demo by a great up and coming band. Clocking in at just over 22 minutes, 'The Miseries Never Cease' is a tour de force. The band can be pigeonholed into the doom genre, but that would be unfair to them as they are so much more. Rather, they are an amalgamation of various metal subgenres including doom, death, melodic death, viking and thrash metal. The record features piano and beautiful string arrangements which make the music even better. Where other bands tend to go overboard in their use of orchestral elements, The Living Fields use them only in places where the song benefits. The vocals also add to the music, as the singer is versatile and quite talented. Vocals on this record run the gamut from deep, death growls to black metal shrieks as well as some nice clean vocals (used early in the title track), as well as classic metal soaring vocals a la Bruce Dickinson, which really caught me off guard at the end of the title track. Guitar work is also impressive, featuring some very solid riffs and great melody. Lyrics are political, which is certainly not the standard fare for doom metal. The thing that struck me most about this album is how different it is. This is clearly not an atempt to make generic, formulaic music. In 22 minutes, The Living Fields manages to explore and mix together genres of metal and do so seamlessly. I can't think of a standout track as every song is as good as any other, and yes, they are all quite different. The worst track on this cd would be "Dim Prospects". This track features audio samples of political rants by Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, and Howard Zinn played over strings. The songs are all fantastic. By no means is this a monotonous record. It will keep your interest from beginning to end. Anyone who is into metal should give this a listen. If you enjoy doom or viking metal, this is a must. 'The Miseries Never Cease' is an amazing demo that should satiate listeners until the full length comes out. Stay on the lookout for this band. I see great things in their future. The Miseries Never Cease gets a 10/10.
Raiden, MTVHell.com