Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 12:42 AM by Giorgos Tsekas
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Country: Mexico
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Year: 2018
When Arts are flirting and exchange liquids then the final result can be really stirring. Especially when literature blends with (extreme) music then personally speaking it can really make me more than excited.
“The Phobos/Deimos Suite” album is inspired by classic books and stories such as Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and similar tales. It is the story of a selfish, outsider, if not a totally piece-of-shit man who is terrified, as almost all humans, of death. Living in constant anxiety and isolation, he finds himself one night being attacked by sleep demons (mares), which transport him to Hell. There, he finds out that Hell is not the organized religion given classic demon/fire/torture-ridden place, but Hell is inside our heads. Hell is our foolish ego, our everyday mistakes, our selfishness as mankind and as individuals.
Despite the interesting story if the music is in a lower level then all the above mean nothing to me. Thankfully musically speaking the record is a top notch one. It has a nostalgic sound trying to revive the brutal tech-death style of the late 90s/early 2000s as it was given by Cryptosy and Gorguts. The organic production leaves space for all instruments to shine. The drums are extra ordinary, full of intense and dynamic, while the riffs are heavy and amazing skillful. Special mention to the ferocious vocal lines that will haunt you as Laurent Bellemare (also in Tribunal, Sutrah, Conflux and Basalte) has a face melting performance.
Featuring current members of First Fragment, Chthe’ilist, Funebrarum, Benighted and Sutrah, Serocs began in 2009 as a one-man project by guitarist Antonio Freyre (guitarist also in Punished) who released 2 EPs and a full length album. The project later transformed into an international band with the release of ‘The Next’ and ‘And When the Sky Was Opened’.
After 3 full lengths and some lineup changes, Serocs with “The Phobos/Deimos Suite” left their imprint in the Death Metal scene as it is an excellent choice, decent and worth exploring proposal for fans of brutal and technical Death that dig Spawn Of Possession, Cryptopsy, Severed Savior, Suffocation and Gorguts.
Highlights: “Thanatophobia”, “Deimos”, “SCP-106” and “Revenants”, while the beautiful instrumental track “Lethe” works like a small break/sci-fi transition to the last part of the album unveils the excellent structure of this killer album.
