EP REVIEW
PERPETUAL PARADOX – May Misery Befall You
echnical, heavy, tight, and controlled.
"May Misery Befall You" is a tightly focused five-track modern extreme metal release that places riffs at the center of its compositional approach. Following the broader scope of last year's "Deathwish," this EP sees PERPETUAL PARADOX narrow their direction considerably: blast beats, technical death metal-derived guitars, groove-driven breakdowns, and metalcore/hardcore influences are kept within the same framework, yet the songs never feel like collages of these elements simply lined up one after another. Riffs, rhythms, and sectional transitions emerge as the music's primary structural anchors.
This approach is particularly evident on 'Bound and Strangled by a Black Snake.' Rather than immediately delivering the aggression suggested by its title through the riffing, the song opens with a melodic, relatively restrained passage; then Harry Cook's hard, precise drum hits, the weight of Oliver Miles and Jorge Nunes' guitars, and Adrian Caucelo's vocals completely alter its character. The contrast here is not merely an introductory trick designed to establish atmosphere. Two separate cooldown sections are placed between the heavier passages, preventing the song from moving at a constant pace and showing that the band does not rely solely on speed and distortion to create tension. Metalcore's section-driven approach and technical death metal's riff density complement each other effectively here.
One of PERPETUAL PARADOX's key strengths is that they never allow technicality to overshadow the songs. Although Oliver Miles and Jorge Nunes turn to shred and technical detail during the faster passages, these elements generally remain natural extensions of the compositions. 'Smell the Rot' is one of the stronger examples of this balance. The song erupts with blast beats before quickly shifting into a heavy, mid-tempo groove, then changes direction again with a more atmospheric section featuring clean vocals. The guitar solo that follows does not come across as a disconnected display of virtuosity. Instead, it functions as a section that completes the song's rhythmic and atmospheric tension. As a result, the technical details become small nuances that reward repeated listens rather than showcase elements that disrupt the song's cohesion.
Andre Luís De Barros' role on bass is also not limited to simply filling out the low end of this dense arrangement. Within the EP's thick production, the low-mid weight created by the bass and guitars together adds physical heft to the music, particularly during breakdowns and groove sections. Marvin Menz's recording, mixing, and mastering work at Tide Studios supports this approach as well. The punchy character of the drums, the density of the guitars, and the vocals being kept front and center place "May Misery Befall You" on the clean yet heavy side of modern extreme metal production. However, the mix is not designed to separate every detail in sterile fashion; its aim is to create controlled density when the instruments lean into one another.
'Laconic' represents the more direct side of this formula. The song leans into a rhythm built for headbanging without allowing technical or melodic embellishments to dominate for long. The rapid transitions heard throughout the EP are also present here, while the atmospheric section around the middle, reminiscent of a memorial service, creates a brief break within the high-energy structure. These interruptions are an important part of the band's compositional approach: rather than continually increasing the intensity, they leave space for that intensity to register.
'Smell the Rot' and 'Source of Hate' bring the band's death metal side further to the forefront. The former moves easily between blast beats and groove, while the latter creates a sharper sense of movement through high-tempo drumming and rhythmic irregularities. Harry Cook's drumming does more here than simply function as a metronome for the speed; tempo changes become an active element in defining the boundaries between sections. By contrast, the breakdowns clearly expose the band's metalcore/hardcore background. Their number and function are among the EP's most debatable aspects. When they work, they increase the weight of the riffs, but there is also a sense that moving further beyond this structural device could open up greater possibilities in terms of tension and release.
This is precisely where the gap between the EP's technical proficiency and its artistic risk becomes apparent. PERPETUAL PARADOX have the riff-writing ability, a tight rhythm section, and a framework capable of moving between death metal and metalcore. Yet while this five-track format intensifies the band's existing tools, it does not radically transform them. The transitions between breakdowns, blast beats, grooves, technical guitar work, and clean vocals are well organized, but in some sections the listener can anticipate the next move too easily. As a result, the limitation of "May Misery Befall You" does not stem from a lack of technical ability, but from how carefully that ability is restrained.
This is also apparent on the title track. 'May Misery Befall You' serves as the EP's central piece, bringing its overall approach together. After the initial heavy section, a mysterious and more atmospheric passage emerges, allowing the music to breathe briefly; then the weight returns before the song closes with an echo. The atmospheric idea here does more than simply provide decorative contrast to the mechanical intensity found elsewhere on the EP. Still, it is clear that if the band were to develop these kinds of sections for longer, the relationship between tension and release could become considerably stronger.
On the vocal side, Adrian Caucelo's growl-heavy performance directly matches the music's harshness. The results are more variable when clean vocals enter the picture. In certain passages, they strengthen the contrast of the atmospheric sections in particular, but they do not always carry the same physical weight as the growls. Nevertheless, it is important that the band does not turn its clean vocals into a more accessible, chorus-driven metalcore formula. This choice preserves the EP's extreme metal character and prevents vocal variation from becoming a vehicle for increased accessibility.
For that reason, assessing "May Misery Befall You" solely within the boundaries of the "Core/Tech Death" label would be incomplete. PERPETUAL PARADOX combine the technical and blast beat-driven side of death metal with metalcore's breakdown logic and hardcore's understanding of groove. The goal, however, is not to theoretically blend genres for its own sake, but to make different approaches to riffing function within the same songs. The band's real identity emerges through these transitions. At a point when technical proficiency alone has ceased to be a distinguishing factor in the contemporary extreme metal scene, PERPETUAL PARADOX's advantage lies in putting that technicality at the service of composition.
There is no detailed aesthetic analysis of the visual identity created by Redamaut in the source material, so it would not be appropriate to place the artwork ahead of the music in interpreting the release. Even so, there is a clear consistency between the band's musical direction and its production approach: "May Misery Befall You" replaces the broader scope of its predecessor with a tighter, more direct, riff-centered form.
The fact that all five tracks are consumed in a relatively short time is also an important part of this approach. Rather than establishing extended atmospheres, the EP presents its ideas as densely as possible. This makes it well suited to repeated listens, while also clearly revealing the space available for the band to take greater risks in the future. Longer tension arcs, unexpected structural deviations, or further development of specific atmospheric ideas could make the band's existing technical foundation not only effective, but more distinctive.
"May Misery Befall You" ultimately succeeds in showing what PERPETUAL PARADOX are capable of, while still holding back some of their cards when it comes to how far they can take that sound. The band brings together the increasingly intertwined aesthetics of technical death metal, metalcore, and hardcore around solid riff writing. For now, the real question is less whether they can change the formula and more whether they are willing to take greater structural risks on top of the strong foundation they have built. That is precisely where the EP becomes most interesting: the answer has yet to be given, but the musical tools to provide it are clearly there.
https://perpetualparadox.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/perpetualparadoxband