Of Mice & Men - Another Miracle

“The only constant is change and disdain,
I just can’t seem to bridge the distance”.

2025 has been a very productive year for the metal genre, with standout releases from bands such as Spiritbox, Deafheaven, Dayseeker, Architects and many others. The latest group to contribute to this is Californian quartet Of Mice And Men, with the release of their ninth studio album, Another Miracle, on November 14th via CMR and Sony. 

The tone for Another Miracle is set immediately by the opener, “A Waltz”. The track, which is one of the strongest on the album, is menacing and dramatic, with the machine gun drum passages building up a tremendous amount of energy, alongside the raw, passionate performance from vocalist and bass player Aaron Pauley. The 3-beat rhythm, true to the title, makes the track stand out and makes it an even more engaging beginning to the album. 

The vocals remain a highlight throughout the rest of the tracklist, too. The album plays a lot into the contrasts between heavier and more melodic tracks - and, while both the screams, such as on “Hourglass”, and the clean vocals, like on “Wake Up”, that Pauley delivers are fantastic, the very best of this album vocally is where those two extremes meet in the middle, with top-notch sing-screaming performances on parts of the title track, “Another Miracle”, or the chorus of the aforementioned opener. The deliveries are very intense and feel authentic and heartfelt, adding tremendously to the emotional impact of the more vulnerable tracks.

The lyrics, while conveying the messaging of the album well, are mostly fairly basic — exploring a variety of darker emotional themes fairly typical of the genre, but doing so in a compelling enough way to not stand out negatively. The instrumentals, on the other hand, are arguably where this album is at its most impressive - there are plenty of solid riffs, the tones are all made to sound huge and threatening, building the record’s dark atmosphere perfectly. The guitar tones in particular have so much grit to them to the point of buzzing slightly, and it works out exactly as intended. The one slight issue in terms of the production is that the drums, while they do sound great, are a little too loud, dominating the mix on certain tracks more than they should be. 

Another flaw of this album is that the first half is quite a bit stronger than the second. It feels as though the band knew exactly which tracks were the best, and allocated them all to the former part of the tracklist. The songs past the halfway point are still solid, and there are still a couple of highlights, like the title track, or “Somewhere In Between”, but the downward trend is noticeable nonetheless, with the song structures getting a little more familiar and repetitive.

Overall, Another Miracle is angry, biting, focused and driven, while still making room for plenty of catchy moments and highlight emotional segments. Of Mice & Men are veterans of the genre by this point, but they still display an admirable amount of hunger and passion on this record. It’s not a groundbreaking album within the metalcore genre by any means, but it more than does its part in being compelling and worth revisiting nonetheless. 

7.3/10

Thanks to Sony Music for the opportunity to have an advance listen.