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We last heard from
Serpica way back in March 2004. As a fledgling band, the lads were off to a good
start but had a few recording issues. Check
out Serpica's Showcase CV. A
year on and Serpica sound much more confident.
Opening track Break The Cycle begins with some heavy, distorted guitar priming
the way for the drums to kick into the big introduction.  | | Serpica |
Unfortunately,
it's a bit of an anti-climax as the drums shrink into the back of the mix until
they almost disappear. On a song like this they should be hard, punchy and bursting
their way though the speakers. Screaming,
thrash-metal backing vocals from Matt Howell are a nice touch though and bring
in some intensity. Some
great synth strings beef up the second track, Hate Figure. This song is the highlight
of the demo for me and the atmospheric, emotional tune starts up with a rolling
bassline and a melodic guitar riff. Then the strings kick in and lift the track
from a fairly standard song to something that has some real guts to it. The trouble
is that this song, in fact the whole demo, is badly recorded and this really lets
them down. Their press release says that they've "spent a lot of time trying
to recreate the live energy of this song" but they haven't really achieved
this and instead of being the huge feast of sound that Hate Figure could be, it
ends up falling a bit flat. If they got themselves a good producer, this could
be one hell of an epic track. Tom
Parker's lead vocals could also do with a bit of livening up. The lads are creating
what is potentially huge, metal-tinged rock and with this in mind, his voice is
a little too safe for my liking. It would be nice to hear him spit out the lyrics
with a bit more passion. All
the songs have a slightly different feel about them. Track Optophobia is a dark,
brooding song with some big angst-ridden, backing vocals while Chaos,
as featured in our last review, has a big rousing chorus that would get mosh pits
hot and sweaty. Read
our Serpica review from March 2004.  | | Serpica |
The
final track on the CD, New Nation, is billed as Serpica's "revolutionary
anthem." I wouldn't quite go that far but it's a good heavy rock song all
the same. Some firey distorted guitar riffs open the track but, as before, the
drums are nowhere near loud enough to have an impact.Ok,
to be fair, they're still young lads and you could argue that this is only
a demo. They probably don't have the cash or the time to spend days in the studio
tweaking that bass drum sound but it's such a shame as these songs are obviously
so much better than the recording allows them to be. Overall,
Serpica show some real promise. There's some great guitar work from Dave Taylor
and their dark, angst rock conjures up memories of the long-haired metal acts
of the early 90s. The
band clearly have a lot of fans, having sold out all copies of their demo at a
local record store. With a good producer in tow and some beefed up vocals from
Tom, they could really be onto a winner. What
do you think of Serpica? Give them a star rating.
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SHOWCASE STAR RATING |
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How do you rate this band?
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