Serenade The Serpents Dance
Gold 07CD Golden Lake Productions 2001
By Russell Garwood
The Serpents Dance is Serenades second album, continuing in the heavier vein adopted on their last MCD Plague Of Time. Gone are the clean vocals representative of their earlier work, but the dark and progressive death metal backing remains. The current line up stands as vocalist Ragnor Coss of Mithras fame, Fraser McGartland on guitars, Adam Chapman (keyboards and bass), and Graeme McGartland on drums, who play mid to fast-paced melodic death with numerous atmospheric sections and instrumentals. Parallels can also be drawn between some songs and doom, the dark atmosphere being similar to that of early Anathema.
Intro - The Serpents Dance has a marching snare leading some haunting and jarring but catchy guitar. This leads seamlessly into Slaves Of Chaos a faster and more extreme song which maintains the tuneful approach. Dying Sight provides great contrast with alternating heavy and soft sections in the progressive mix of wailing guitars and compelling rhythms. Betrayal Of Faith, track four, offers more of the same, allowing Coss to demonstrate his accomplished, more guttural but refreshingly decipherable vox. Standout Armageddon Comes has jumpy guitars and a welcome acoustic section halfway through to break up the song. Next comes The March Of Darkness an instrumental that adds further diversity by using keyboards and piano as well as sound effects, building an atmosphere subsequently smashed by Evenslaughter. This, the penultimate song, returns to the death metal format, but again has an atmospheric segment which stops monotony setting in. Final track, Nevermore, finishes the album in style with grandiose, slow, majestic melodies and an eerie ending concluding the album as it began.
The Serpents Dance is a solid album, definitely a welcome listen. At times, perhaps due to the progressive nature of the music and the need to get every riff noticed, the songs can feel repetitive. Also, while the quieter sections are welcome, sometimes I feel they would have more effect if better integrated and more frequent. Such flaws are minor, however, and with this album Serenade have shown promising abilities which many melodic, dark and progressive death metal fans would enjoy.
Gold 07CD Golden Lake Productions 2001
By Russell Garwood
The Serpents Dance is Serenades second album, continuing in the heavier vein adopted on their last MCD Plague Of Time. Gone are the clean vocals representative of their earlier work, but the dark and progressive death metal backing remains. The current line up stands as vocalist Ragnor Coss of Mithras fame, Fraser McGartland on guitars, Adam Chapman (keyboards and bass), and Graeme McGartland on drums, who play mid to fast-paced melodic death with numerous atmospheric sections and instrumentals. Parallels can also be drawn between some songs and doom, the dark atmosphere being similar to that of early Anathema.
Intro - The Serpents Dance has a marching snare leading some haunting and jarring but catchy guitar. This leads seamlessly into Slaves Of Chaos a faster and more extreme song which maintains the tuneful approach. Dying Sight provides great contrast with alternating heavy and soft sections in the progressive mix of wailing guitars and compelling rhythms. Betrayal Of Faith, track four, offers more of the same, allowing Coss to demonstrate his accomplished, more guttural but refreshingly decipherable vox. Standout Armageddon Comes has jumpy guitars and a welcome acoustic section halfway through to break up the song. Next comes The March Of Darkness an instrumental that adds further diversity by using keyboards and piano as well as sound effects, building an atmosphere subsequently smashed by Evenslaughter. This, the penultimate song, returns to the death metal format, but again has an atmospheric segment which stops monotony setting in. Final track, Nevermore, finishes the album in style with grandiose, slow, majestic melodies and an eerie ending concluding the album as it began.
The Serpents Dance is a solid album, definitely a welcome listen. At times, perhaps due to the progressive nature of the music and the need to get every riff noticed, the songs can feel repetitive. Also, while the quieter sections are welcome, sometimes I feel they would have more effect if better integrated and more frequent. Such flaws are minor, however, and with this album Serenade have shown promising abilities which many melodic, dark and progressive death metal fans would enjoy.
