Artist: Serpentyne
Title: Tales From The Dark
Genre: Symphonic Metal
Release Date: 24th February 2025
Label: RockShots Records
Album Review
I don’t know where to start with this album. It evokes a multitude of feelings in me, bad and good. I mean, it sounds good, on the surface. The musicianship is good, it has punchy drums that fill the sound space, workman like bass and crunchy sinewy guitars that slice and soar and strangle. The orchestration and production is top notch as well, guitarist LEE WILMER has done a good job but still something irks me.
A couple of years ago I reviewed the single ‘Prophetess Of Dreams’. I was impressed, it’s the beginning of a narrative journey about magic spells being cast to poison a mind, impress upon it toxic memories that torture before more spells are needed to rid one of the toxic mind poison that rots from within before you surface from this inner hell into a realm of clarity, freshness and calm. but as I listen to the album...
The voice, it’s always slightly off or dissonant and jarring (‘Ghosts Of Times Past’). But it’s a narrative track so I could just see that as device to aid the story arcing. ‘Run For Your Life’ gallops, canters and trots, or is that trot, canter and gallop? Anyway it feels like a swordsman on a horse stabbing and flicking his long blade with deft flicks of the wrist. There’s a nice vocal dance with Maggiebeth Sand and Nigel Middleton around the two minute mark with some nice guitar work towards the end.
‘Evil From Within’ sounds like the theme to ‘The Exorcist’ to begin with, aggressive cheese grater guitars turn that vibe on its head. I like the mirrored / call and response lyrical delivery but the lyric is a tad cliched. It sounds like theatre production territory. I do like the multitudinous violin sounds conjured from John Haithwaites keyboard and Maggiebeth’s wide throated melodious howls near the end, and then...
’Dreamer’ floats in on a gossamer haze and then the growling bass tickles the pace up a notch with a nice syncopation on the drums before the pace slows and the vibe plateaus. It’s weird, I feel like I’ve run at full pelt and then gone head first into a large block of sponge, but I’m still pushing on although my pace has receded. There’s some nice blubbery bass and COAL CHAMBER like grated guitar though, its sugary, sugary but slightly burnt.
‘Seance’ is up next. I like the bombast of the drumming, then straight into a ritualistic chant of “Hey Hey Hey”. The recording makes for a cleaner track, it feels flatter, live the track has more oomph to it but here the “Hey Hey Hey”s don’t have the same or required bombast. Nah something is missing.
‘March Of Death’ starts ominously and windy, some would say serpentine. Well it feels windy to me with siren like vocalisations meandering like a dusty road through a mountain pass. There needs to be, in my opinion, more voices singing the refrains, like a choir of Hroa (Elvish spirits) because it’s not filled enough, but the snappy stereo drums are on the money along with the lower toned female vocal offering up a bit of foreboding. The guitars blurt in like radio interference and then take a step back into the mix like Cenobite retreat into shadow. The vocal overall could be, erm, a bit more “confident” in places. I know what I mean, it doesn’t matter.
Finally, we are at the end of the journey. ‘Promised Land’. I zone out on this one to be honest. I went off on a daydream on the different styles of song craft from linear storytelling to confessional and then onto abstract / impressionism before I snapped back into the moment. This album is clearly not the last two.
I zoned back in when the vocal was uhhhh uuuuhing and Lee Wilmers guitars were cutting in like flick knife slashes followed by quick stabs and Maggiebeth’s deep throated soprano. I did it again on another listen, I zoned out and then back in when there was a mirrored vocal, snapped drum phrases and an ear searing guitar line.
I like the album, and then I like it less. And then I like it more and then less. It’s taken repeated listens to go from “meh”, “nope” and “I don’t like that” to this stage but on the whole I like it. Ok it has some derivative lyrical content about love or fighting the evil within and some tracks leap out at you more than others. But there’s enough content here to soundtrack a movie if it was chosen.
Tracklist
01. Prophetess Of Dreams
02. Into The Night
03. Dangerous Minds
04. Ghosts Of Times Past
05. Run For Your Life
06. Evil From Within
07. Dreamer
08. Séance
09. March Of Death
10. Promised Land
Line-up
Maggiebeth Sand – Vocals
John Hathwaite – Keyboards
Lee Wilmer – Guitars
Nigel Middleton – Bass and Vocals
Marco Biagini – Drums
Website
https://www.serpentyne.com/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7.5
Sound: 7.5
Total: 7.5 / 10
