New Miserable Experience – Gild The Lilly
New Miserable Experience – Gild The Lilly
Pelagic Records
23/01/26
Review by Oli Gonzalez
6/10
New Miserable Experience…and no, we’re not talking about that first Monday back in the office after the Christmas period off (that’s an OLD miserable experience). Instead, we’re talking about new blood on Pelagic Records’ books, a band that started life as what was essentially an online collaboration of ideas. A band that now consists of members from esteemed bands such as Rossetta, Rivers Of Nihil, and Revocation, with members being previous or current members of each. As such, you may envisage an act centred on aggressive, technical metal. Right? Wrong. Here, this collaboration aims to explore the more delicate and aesthetic aspects of music, something very different from the other aforementioned artists. “We are very much in the sadboi world” explains bassist and vocalist David Grossman, implying a more melancholic and emotional avenue on this record, “Gild The Lilly”. Curiosity really is getting the best of me now, and my expectations are scattered, so let’s get straight into it and see what New Miserable Experience are all about…
The album begins with ‘Heartsick’, and we’re greeted with a fusion of space rock stylings and new romantic-esque electronic beats borrowed from the 1980s. Think New Order and Mew fused. In fact, Mew’s lead vocalist Jonas is a suitable comparison for David’s vocal style, higher-pitched, delicate and etched in emotion. The synths are bright and sharp, adding the radiance the band had promised. This a formula and compositional pattern that continues into ‘Ordinary People’. Though things take a darker twist in ‘The Devil We Know’, with the bass becoming dirtier, distorted, and dominating the rhythm and melodic components of the song. Impossible to ignore and impossible to avoid bopping your head to. An earworm that wriggle its way to your subconscious and stay there.
When Grossman described the band as being in the ‘sadboi world’, it makes perfect sense when you get to ‘In The House Of Denial’. A more mellow and minimalist number, this one will tug on your heartstrings in no time, especially when you delve deeper into the lyrics and narrative portrayed by Grossman here.
The return of the distorted synths return in a faster up-tempo number in ‘Perfect Things’. Try to think of Static X with less distortion and without Wayne’s aggressive vocals, and instead subbed for Grossman’s more delicate voice.
The album continues and subsequently closes in an array of shorter compositions that explore a range of expression with the synths and electronic passages. An exploration that results in an end product that feels rather experimental. Too experimental. A scattering of ideas that seldom develop into something larger. It feels like a group of seasoned musicians in hugely established acts (or previously in them) who have collaborated to explore ideas that they can’t use in their primary bands. Well, that’s pretty much what it is. By the same token, this perhaps isn’t supposed to be taken too seriously. Genre boundaries won’t be pushed, but there’ll be a group of artists who’ll be ultimately creatively satisfied as a result of this.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Heartsick
02. Ordinary People
03. The Devil We Know
04. In the House of Denial
05. Infinite Sadness
06. Payback From God
07. Yours to Bury
08. Perfect Things
09. Letters to Insomnia
10. Perfect Blue
11. Running the Fear of it Dry
12. Ataraxia
LINKS:
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