Serenity – Death & Legacy (2011)

In the band’s most ambitious release to date, Serenity sets out to create a release around historical figures such as Christopher Columbus, Giacom Casanova, Sir Francis Drake, Queen Elizabeth I, in a very electrifying and symphonic fashion. “Death & Legacy” is hands down the band’s best release and it’s also one of the most dynamic and rich sounding albums we have received this 2011.

The overall Symphonic feeling of “Death & Legacy” is one of the main ingredients to set this release apart from your average album. However, the ingredient that really sets them apart from the rest is the amazing duets with Charlotte Wessels (Delain), Ailyn (Sirenia), and Amanda Sommerville.

After setting the mood with an into track, “New Horizons” fully explodes into a very catchy and involved track that talks about Christopher Columbus and his ‘discovery’ of America. Immediately you can notice that Georg Neuhauser’s vocals sound a bit like Tony Kakko and fit perfectly for this kind of music. The album’s first ‘single’ is up next, “The Chevalier”, which has a very nice video by the way. In this song we are graced with the voice of Ailyn and it acts as a very engaging counter part to Georg.

In “Far From Home” we notice the band’s Progressive/Power Metal chops with brilliant guitar work. The band’s use of choirs-like sections in songs like “Heavenly Mission” gives them more versatility than your run of the mil band, and shows another side of things. The interludes feel a bit like fillers, but they also separate the album nicely allowing the listener to catch it’s breath between epic tracks (Aylin also provides some words in Spanish for the “Prayer” interlude.

“Changing Fate” comes at us with a more medieval pace featuring nice acoustics and the charming voice of Amanda Sommerville. With an even more epic feeling and perfectly melodic sections we have “Serenade of Flames”, greatly improved by Charlotte Wessels (Delain) siren-like voice. The great thing about this release is that even though the band uses guest singers, they never go out of their way to sound differently or to fully abuse this resource since they always have Georg providing most of the vocals and keep a very consistent sound.

The last ‘section’ of the album starts with “Below Eastern Skies”, another interlude track that features more mystical elements and Indian-like influences that made us flinch and start thinking about ridiculous bollywood movies. This section only features 2 songs (not counting the bonus tracks) and provides a nice closing for this already rich and epic album.

For over 67 minutes (including the two bonus tracks), Serenity will blow you away with very intricate compositions and a super lyrical content. We can only think of a handful of bands that can pull off such a rich and dynamic album, and Serenity is sneaking up into those very rare spots. If you like Power/Progressive Metal with a symphonic edge, you will be blown away by this amazing release.

Release: February 25th, 2011 (Europe) / March 15th, 2011 (USA)

Country: Austria