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Serenity - Codex Atlanticus review




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Reviewer:
8.1

98 users:
7.45
Band: Serenity
Album: Codex Atlanticus
Release date: January 2016


01. Codex Atlanticus [feat. Amanda Somerville]
02. Follow Me
03. Sprouts Of Terror
04. Iniquity
05. Reason
06. My Final Chapter
07. Caught In A Myth
08. Fate Of Light
09. The Perfect Woman [feat. Amanda Somerville]
10. Spirit In The Flesh
11. The Order
12. Forgive Me [bonus]
13. Sail [feat. Natascha Koch] [bonus]
14. My Final Chapter [orchestral version] [bonus]

As somebody who takes the utmost care not to stray into the symphonic genre on most occasions, I looked upon Serenity as a rose in a minefield when I discovered War Of Ages in the 2013 MS Awards. It's a pleasure to have the band reappear on my radar with Codex Atlanticus, a delightful reassurance that no genre entirely lacks appeal, even to those utterly bored with the concept.

Georg Neuhauser possesses the range - here speaking more in terms of style than octaval breadth - to make Serenity continuously engaging, changing up his delivery throughout the songs to accommodate shifts in direction or mood. His voice, clean and commanding while not overbearing, offers a refreshing change of pace from the typical, foppish blank slates you always hear scraping the skies like chipmunks doing their best Tarja impersonation. Neuhauser's voice contributes significantly to this album's replay value. That's not to discount, however, the actual quality of songwriting or other performances.

I find a lot of symphonic metal cumbersome and overly dense, eternally engaged in the pursuit of becoming more and more bombastic and operatic at the expense of being accessible. That may be a hypocritical reaction from somebody who can spare a lot of time for power metal, symphonic's close cousin, especially when there is so much overlap, but I find that the metal aspects tend to be underwritten and the symphonic aspects tacked on more for effect than meaning.

Serenity definitely embraces the distinctive devotion to "bigness" that plagues the more heroic metal genres, with the sweeping, orchestral keyboards and chanting choirs and ludicrously posh dramaticism - but Serenity succeeds by knowing where to draw the line. Codex Atlanticus never drowns itself in fustian set pieces, and never loses sight of its musicality in pursuit of the epic chorus that everybody always seems to need; the songs never forsake memorability in the name of avoiding cliches, but neither do they lose all self-respect and turn into Evanescence.

Songs like the magnificent "Sprouts Of Terror" and "Spirit In The Flesh" really rip, with the grandiose backgrounds handily complementing the hard-hitting riffs and Neuhauser's impassioned vocals. Guest vocals from Amanda Somerville and Natascha Koch help fill out the backdrop beautifully. Even the silly songs (looking at you, "Perfect Woman") remembered to bring along enough personality to avoid coming off like a complete farce, and I'm much more willing to indulge Serenity now and again since Codex Atlanticus has more substance to offer than faux-majestic filler.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 6
Production: 7





Written on 03.07.2016 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct.


Comments

Comments: 9   [ 3 ignored ]   Visited by: 161 users
04.07.2016 - 10:54
Rating: 6
musclassia

I really like this band's debut but feel like they've been getting progressively less interesting with each release. Thought this was pretty forgettable
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04.07.2016 - 21:02
AngelofDeth
Cyborg Raptor
Wow. Thanks for the review, never heard of this band and listening on YouTube rn and so far pretty impressed. Definitely agree with the singer sounding refreshing, I enjoy female vox but it's nice to have some male vox in sympho just to switch things up.
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pewpew.. gotcha
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05.07.2016 - 18:09
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Another example how a country can make somehow band higher as if it would be Italian for example , seeing Austrian, name, artwork somehow I wanna check it out
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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05.07.2016 - 23:14
Rating: 7
fandango68

Written by AngelofDeth on 04.07.2016 at 21:02

Wow. Thanks for the review, never heard of this band and listening on YouTube rn and so far pretty impressed. Definitely agree with the singer sounding refreshing, I enjoy female vox but it's nice to have some male vox in sympho just to switch things up.


Try the Phantasma albums with Georg, Charlotte Wessels & Oliver Phillips (ex-Everon).. it's an altogether stronger and more varied release than this.
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First gig was Manowar (loincloths 'n' all), Bristol Colston Hall in March 1983, on the 'Hail to England' tour. Tickets were £3.75, 300 in the audience, Mercyful Fate never showed, but my hearing still got seriously trashed..
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05.07.2016 - 23:16
Rating: 7
fandango68

Written by Irritable Ted on 05.07.2016 at 21:55

Check out Fallen Sanctuary or War Of Ages before this one. Its just not that good.


yes, but where else are you going to get a track entitled 'Sprouts of Terror'... I was wondering whether it was a sequel to Angra's 'Sprouts of Time'..
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First gig was Manowar (loincloths 'n' all), Bristol Colston Hall in March 1983, on the 'Hail to England' tour. Tickets were £3.75, 300 in the audience, Mercyful Fate never showed, but my hearing still got seriously trashed..
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07.07.2016 - 14:06
Rating: 8
Novas

Serenity is one of my favorite bands. This was a little disappointed than. But its also a concept album. I did not like the secondary male voice either. You can also hear alot of Disney-like songs in here. But overall, still a great album. Just lacks the power that the other releases had
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09.07.2016 - 06:08
Rating: 7
bddidier

Written by musclassia on 04.07.2016 at 10:54

I really like this band's debut but feel like they've been getting progressively less interesting with each release. Thought this was pretty forgettable


Same here. I had totally forgot about this album before this review reminded me of it. Not a bad album but really a disappointment compare to Fallen Sanctuary and even War of Ages. The middle part sounds like cover songs of Meat Loaf... And the two bonus songs are more than forgettable, they coud have been left in a drawer.
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29.07.2016 - 17:12
Cy Nide

Written by Irritable Ted on 05.07.2016 at 21:55

Check out Fallen Sanctuary or War Of Ages before this one. Its just not that good.


Thanks for the tip. I'm new to this band and just checked out Fallen Sanctuary at your suggestion. Very cool stuff, I really enjoyed it.
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26.12.2016 - 17:20
Rating: 7
Mountain King
K i K o
War of Ages was way better. I hope the next one will have the needed energy to keep the listener interesting... 5 songs worth listening for me on this one which is not much...
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