I find it interesting to write about first impressions of an album. By first impressions I mean the initial minutes or seconds when one begins to hear an album. As I said before, I think album openers are a kind of invitation card to albums and most of them do follow the directives given by the album warmer. Hypnotic. Mesmerizing. Pungent. Those are my first impressions of “Retaliate.” Album warmer “Brazen Serpent“ is a slow and captive track with strong guitar riffs done mostly with flat modal chords. That’s why it sounds so powerful. The track gives that powerful impression of an amazing ancient force driving the band – 1980’s Extreme Metal features. What did you think my dear child of the night?
As an EP with only four tracks, “Retaliate” gives a pretty good view of Serpent Corpse‘s style as a band. I guess their musical signsture is very well carved in stone here. “Iron Corpse,” for instance, has an anthemic beginning to soon acquire a Sepultura “Arise” era spirit. The track deals very well bouncing calm moments with angrier ones. I liked very much the way the band mixes slow and cadenced moments with faster and more aggressive ones working mostly with the flat modal chords I aforementioned. The band likes a lot to make shifts of tempo going easily from the faster-than-the-speed-of-light to almost Doom Metal velocity as “The Undying” tells the fan. Its final moments showcase an apotheotic faster cadence that does not let the fan blink the eye. Same happens with grande finale “Meteor Summon“ whose speed and tempo shifts surprise.
“Retaliate” is a pungent strong Death Metal album clearly inspired on Sepultura “Arise” era. Of course, this does not mean this is the only thing to say about Serpent Corpse as the band develops its own clear musical signature. Sepultura are an inspiration. Only that. The hypnotic movements of grande finale “Meteor Summon“ take the fan by the guts where the guitars make some very sharp and cirurgical interventions.
Serpent Corpse “Retaliate” will be released on June 27th via Transcending Obscurity Records.
Track Listing:
1. Brazen Serpent
2. Iron Corpse
3. The Undying
4. Meteor Summon
Watch “Iron Corpse” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!