Serpent Noir – Seeing Through the Shadow Consciousness (Open up the Shells)

Due to reckless government spending, Greece has descended into flames. People are angry, and that country's metal scene is a perfect reflection of this. Greek extreme metal has become much more violent in recent years, and Serpent Noir is the latest expression of that violence. The band was formed back in 2006 and features Kostas (Embrace of Thorns, Necrovorous) on vocals. They released their full-length debut last year and it boasts a really long title: Seeing Through the Shadow Consciousness (Open up the Shells).

This album is nothing if not diverse. They play your standard black metal structures that also happen to have tinges of death metal to them, but there are also times where they play clean guitars and drums, and other times when they play patterns that sound more in line with classic heavy metal (“Dragon Egregore” is the most prominent example). Personally, I don't really like these classic heavy metal parts. I feel they slow down the music too much. The music should be more like the cover: evil, monstrous, fast, infernal and violent.

The songwriting might not be all that great, but the instrumentation's still great. The drums are raw in their sound and delivery, the smoke of blasts and double bass filling the sky. The rasps fit right in with the Greek black metal bands that came before him. The ritual chants are also a nice touch. They give the impression that the aural destruction was ordained by dark forces beneath the earth. The guitars are wrapped in a smoky distortion and the riffs combine the monstrous nature of death metal with the cold and unforgiving nature of black metal (during the traditional black metal parts, at least). They even include a few solos on occasion.

This album shows off some great musicianship, but the uneven and unfocused songwriting holds it back. If you ask me, it should have had less traditional heavy metal parts and more displays of unrelenting black metal fury. However, I still have hope for these guys. I'm not about to dismiss a band based on one album.