ALBUM REVIEW: NO PLACE FOR ME BY MISS MAY I
Reviewed by Cecilia Pattison-Levi
Release date: 2 October 2026
The Troy, Ohio metalcore natives Miss May I have a new album, ‘No Place For Me’, and it's a 10-song record about change as you age, toxic relationships and their effects, loneliness and imagery around the culture of types of death in modern life. Levi Benton, Ryan Neff, Elisha Mullins and Jerod Boyd ask their fans and listeners to face the harsh truth about reality and gain a cathartic release from seeing the world straight on with intertwined dark and beautiful vocals, melodies and instrumentation.
The album starts with distorted feedback from the electric guitars and bass, on ‘Sanctuary’, and within a few seconds, the drummer kicks in and just goes for it: blast beats, snare workout and huge drum kicks are going to set the tone of the album, along with the dark vocal fry as it expresses the vulnerability of others, “taste of hate”. The clean vocals on this intense song are just beautiful as they deliver the themes of the album: “wasting away” your life and “dying before I wake” as “I lost my sanctuary” and safety. The second song has huge guitar squalls and drums as ‘Portrait of Pain’ is delivered. The artistic “pedestal” has fallen and been “desecrated” as pain, the creator, is the maker of the people: its “masterpiece”. It's an album highlight! There is a call to “claw my way out” to beat blasts in ‘Hand Me A Halo’. Lyrically, the song deals with controlling your fears, emotions and the sense of self as you grow older, as the emotions of “miss who I was” and the spirit of self-die slowly. The vocals are great, and the song is another highlight.
There is a “ringing in the distance” as ‘Pray For Silence’ follows. There is “static” and “white noise” and “signals” that are drowned out, but through the screamcore vocals the protagonist can “hear you calling”. The hard screamcore vocals, on 'Death Threat', with the thrashing drums and chugging guitars and bass, are dark song about intrusive thoughts and words and “can't get you outta my head”. The path of being emotionally open and vulnerable leads to madness and “being too far gone” if you can't control it. The song is a warning to control your own thinking, and emotions, and not let anyone twist you in knots. The following song, ‘Die On The Vine’, continues the theme and the brutal pace, and the drums and melodic guitar riffs lift over the rhythm.
The melodic 'Fire Falls' is about that feeling when it seems the Earth gives way underneath you as the “pressures” in life “grow”, and you realise that the life you are leading may be a “beautiful lie”. The concept of fire is a great metaphor for cleansing the slate of your troubles. Cremating it! It is followed by ‘Bury Me Down’ and being in the “eye of the storm” as “confusion” reigns in the little lies we tell in life. The instrumentation is dark and heavy, and reflects the broken relationship buried “six feet/right down”. The lightness comes in the lovely clean vocals and the superb guitar solo.
Then, a crunching guitar riff brings in ‘Ashes Of The Altar’ before the drums and dark vocals combine into a sonic form of “gasoline” as the “fire burns”. The guitar solo again brings the light “in the ashes of it all” as the lyrics talk of the end of “comfort”. The album closes out with its introduction of distorted guitars in ‘Highbrow Thieves’ until the song hits properly. Its lyrical world is about surviving the takers and the haters in life and standing up to them. Don’t “take a thing from me”, and if you do, “you'll have to kill me”. There is a strong sense of “denial” and the idea “of going f**king nowhere”. It hits perfectly and links back to the first song to complete a thematic circle.
Miss May I have created ‘No Place For Me’, an album that has a strong lyrical heart, and multiple listens will reward those who want to take that deep dive and listen to home truths.
