Swedish shock rockers Mister Misery tread quite a few well-trodden paths on their new, self-titled effort, set for release this week. The record company say they ‘capture the essence of all the sub-genres in modern heavy music’, but after several listens to the album I can’t decide whether that means they can’t decide on one particular style or whether they are genuinely eclectic musical magpies…

It’s not actively horrible – this is clearly a band that’s accomplished both musically and stylistically, and in Erzsébet (The Countess) and Eye Of The Storm the band has a brace of pleasing, heavied-up pop metal anthems that’ll go down a storm live, of that I’m sure. But these tracks are followed by the out and out pop metal of Hand of Death, replete with keyboard glitches and post-hardcore vocals that just jar a little in relation to what’s gone before.

Kids’ nursery rhyme Crooked Man is rendered in a sort of noire style reminiscent of fellow countrymen Dampf, and possibly all the better for that, but then normal service is resumed with Survival of The Sickest, which melds In Flames to Black Veil Brides without really threatening either.

I could go on and single out individual tracks ad nauseam, but at the end of the day that would be pointless. All you really need to know is that, rather than capturing ‘the essence of all the sub-genres in modern heavy music’, Mister Misery have found their patch of dirt and are going to resolutely defend it for all they are worth. They know what works for them and their (presumably large – this is their third full length after all) legion of fans, and on Mister Misery they give just that over and over again. At some point you’d think the law of diminishing returns would have to kick in, but for now I don’t think they’re too worried.

Mister Misery releases on August 2nd.