Misery (Band)

Misery (formerly known as MyMisery) was formed in 1989 by Jason Cohen, John LoCasto and George Stamoolis.

As Friends in highschool (Sachem High School, Long Island New York) who all were influenced by the same bands, Misery rehearsed relenlessly from 1989 to 1991 sharpening their chops to take the New York metal scene by storm.

Misery's original incarnation consisted of John LoCasto - Vocals, Jason (Reuben) Cohen - Lead Guitar, George Stamoolis - Rythm Guitar, Joe Locasto - Bass, Jeremy (Chimpanse) Postillio - Drums. It was with this lineup they hit the Long Island club scene playing places such as, Barnaby's, Hammerhedz, and Club Raw in Queens. In 1990 the band fired drummer Jeremy Postillio and picked up local Long Island whiz kid drummer Pete Cangemi and started writing more solid material.

Misery played the Long Island / NYC club circuit relentlessly for 3 years before [...] their debut album. 1991's Unsanitary Justice. The album featured a mixture of all the bands influnces culminating in the albums final track Up & Down / In & Out. This cut featured samples taken from the the controverisal 1978 film I Spit On Your Grave. This song also became a staple during the bands live show where the crowd would always break into a furious pit, and the band reacting equally as insane on stage.

In 1992 Misery was contacted by the owner of The Roxy in Huntington, Long Island and asked to open shows for some national acts. It was at this time Misery forged forward evolving their sound mixing the sounds of NYC Hardcore, with Bay Area Thrash, this was long before bands like Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold and Sevendust hit the scene also mixing NYC Hardcore with Metal.

Misery was sharing stages with bands like Napalm Death, Testament, Biohazard, Life Of Agony, Sick Of It All, and many other national acts. At the peak of their popularity on the NYC club circut Misery decided to hit the studio once again to record their follow up, 1994's Knocked UP

Knocked Up met with various production snafu's, While recording in a private studio the producer sped up the tapes and did not mic the drums properly which let to the "scrath" guitars bleeding into the mics and causing all the guitars on the songs to sound out of tune. This lead to alot of frustration between band members ultimately leading to the departure of rythm guitarist George Stamoolis. Additionally during recording guitarist Jason (Reuben) Cohen has all of his gear stolen and was forced to borrow equipment for the recording process.

After searching for a suitable studio and producer Misery decided to go with local Long Island studio Split Decision. This offered the band the ability to take their time recording things and making sure they "got it right". Once the CD was completed there was an artwork snafu where the colors of the T-Shirts turned out to be all phosphorescent colors making the shirts very "un-metal".

It was also at this time Misery made the decision to bring on the bands sound man Jeff Mosher into the band as rythm guitarist. Jeffs style complimented Jason's very well, but ultimately due to Jeff wanting to concentrate on doing sound and producing he bowed out and returned to his soundman duties with the band.

Misery pressed on as a 4 piece till 1996 when Jason departed due to MusicAL differences. The band wanted to move in a more Hardcore direction while Jason wanted to move more into the classic thrash direction like Overkill, Testament, and Pantera. They have remained friends over the years and in 2000 the band had a reuinion of sorts when Jason played a gig with them on Long Island when their guitarist at the time could not make it to the gig. Jason had planned on re-joining Misery and they had started to write new material when Jason had to leave the band once again due to his job moving him out of state.

Misery has continued on with various members over the last 12 years and its current lineup consists of John Locasto - Vocals, Corey Schaefer - Guitars, Duane Conlon - Guitars, Joe Locasto - Bass, and Scott Burrero - Drums. They also have a new home on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/miseryny

Discography -