#42: Serdce - TimelessnessIt's weird to say it but this was probably one of the most "normal" prog metal albums I got in 2015. I mean, yeah, "normal" for prog metal is pretty weird by "normal" standards, but if you've listened to any modern prog metal you probably already have an idea of what this sounds like. Is that a bad thing? No, not really. I think they still put their own unique spin on it, even if there's a good bit of Dream Theater and Cynic worship going on here.
There's a few weak spots to point out right off the bat; First, the vocals. They're not bad, but neither the cleans or harsh vocals are particularly impressive, they're mostly just "there". Second, the bass tone. Considering how high the bass presence is on this album, it's a shame it's accompanied by that tone; it feels just too watery and rubbery, it lacks any real power. Third, you can easily notice the song structures on this album are often quite similar. Quiet intro, some vocal bits, a long instrumental section in the middle, a reprise of the intro somewhere near the end. It gets a bit predictable, but the songs don't end up all sounding the same, just using a similar structure, so it's not a huge issue.
The album does have some flavor of its own; there's a lot of what I -think- is xylophone and saxophone throughout; the solo during the first half of Into Shambhala, the intro of Samadhi, the heavy moments of Loss of Feelings, a bit in the middle of The Sixth Sense, the opening solo of Newborn, and a lot of moments on Magic Rain, probably some smaller moments I missed too. There's also the music box intro of Omens, and a pretty strong strings presence throughout, though I'm fairly certain they're synthstrings, but they sound fine enough.
It's not an overwhelmingly heavy album, either, despite technically being death metal; I'd say the ratio of clean singing to growls is 2:1, and the balance between softer music and metal is probably 50/50. I'm really pretty okay with this, though, it means the music is nicely dynamic, and they never rest on any one mood too long so as to get tedious. The softest full track on the album, Loss of Feelings, still has some energy in the middle and even a moment of heaviness, it's not just purely a laidback ballad track. On the flipside, even the heaviest tracks, The Sixth Sense and Quasar, have their quieter moments as well.
I noted earlier that the vocals aren't great here, but that's just a minor complain in the end, as well, since the instrumental presence of this album is pretty clearly the focus. A lot of these songs have long instrumental breaks - Last Faith has three different ones, and notable all distinct; first a proggy technical section, a laid-back guitar solo, and a more technical, shreddy guitar solo. That's simplifying the three sections a lot, to be fair, but they all are pretty different.
One thing the proggier sections of this album do well is remain cohesive; it's not just a mishmash of unrelated ideas with no transition between them, nor is it sticking to doing the same "proggy" thing for a while before switching to something else; there's a flow to the sections, where they'll explore one theme for a while but add enough variation to it where it doesn't get stale, and gradually shift in the direction of another idea. Sure, there are brief musical tangents, but those tend to be interspersed in the middle of larger musical ideas as brief one-off interruptions. I won't say every transition is perfect as there are a few that don't work out so well; Omens, with how long its instrumental break is, has one or two off the top of my head, but it makes up for it by having all of its ideas work out well enough that the rough transitions don't bother me so much.
I will say for certain that I feel this album is a bit on the long and drawn-out side of things. Quasar in particular feels especially redundant, but there's a lot of small places this album could've been trimmed down to make it a more engaging experience; the band does have a pretty strict sound even with each track's individual mood, and some of the moments in the later tracks can tend to blur together.
There's a few nitpicks I have, as well; the abrupt end of Into Shambhala kills the building mood a bit too quickly in my opinion, some of the synth tones aren't great (especially the beginning of Unique Path and Quasar), and the fade-out ending to the album isn't the most inspired, but it's not an awful ending either.
On the flipside, there's a lot of musical moments I feel the need to highlight, mostly because I wrote a ton of them down and haven't had a chance to point them out. Samadhi has this salsa-esque bit in its instrumental, rotating out with a cool riff under some noodly guitar, and its outro is a crushing heavy reprise of the intro xylophone line. Omes has a kind of messy chorus that works way better than it should, a brief little jazzy bass bit in the instrumental as well as a very ragtime and classical-feeling paino soon after. Last Faith has easily the best chorus on the album, and there's a chuggy riff with descending chromatic flourishes in the middle of the song that I really dig. The weirdly slidey solo of Loss of Feelings is interesting if nothing else, but I think it works out alright, gives it a smooth feel. The opening riff of The Sixth Sense is very power-metally but pretty strong and pretty memorable. Unique Path is a weirdly cohesive song for the album and I like how it opts to build on the mood from its intro throughout most of the entire song. Magic Rain has a really strong feeling of finality to it, an intense and frantic mood in the heavier moments contrasted by the various softer moments.
I'll also leave a comment that applies to most of this album; I think the band is pretty capable of creating a strong mood with their music, moreso than they are writing really memorable or unique riffs, melodies, etc. This is especially true of the instrumental sections, where it barely feels like it matters what exactly is being played, just that the way it sounds registers as the proper mood easily and it's technically pleasing enough to remain interesting.
I don't feel any of this music particularly strongly, there's not many moments here I'm ever too interested in revisiting, but as a whole the album is pretty enjoyable to listen to, apart from its length. Is it groundbreaking? No. Is it unique? Nah. But am I glad I got it? Yeah, I'd say so. It's an oddly weightless album considering its technical nature, but I think that might be why I like it; though it also means I'll never have any strong dedication to it. I don't feel this is a particularly cohesive review since I'm still not sure I've completely processed this album, but take it as you will and at the very least check this out if you want some pretty solid prog metal; it's available for free download, so you might as well give it a spin if you're curious.
Favorite Tracks: Last Faith, Magic Rain, Samadhi
Least Favorite Track: Quasar
7/10DTF Addendum: This is just the kind of album I enjoy on a base level, kind of mindless prog metal that's all pretty solid, nothing really mindblowing or even especially memorable, but, I like this.