Somber Serenity "Singular"
Review 03.2004

Somber Serenity is Dark Metal band who come from Germany. Now these guys have been around the metal scene since 1994, but it was only in 2002 when their first full-lenght album came out, under the name of "Singular".

This is a band that has already played gigs with some of the big boys, like My Dying Bride and The Gathering, so you can not only expect the quality which, of course, is demanded to play concerts with these bands, but also something within the same music style.
But what is Dark Metal, really? Lately I've been seeing a couple of bands who also label their music style under the name of "Dark Metal", but in the end I don't think that it's the same as "Black Metal" or "Death Metal", which you always know more or less what to expect from a band like that. I can't say that I know exactly what will come from a Dark Metal band because it's always a mix between a couple of other music styles, only after hearing it for a while I can know for sure.

Regarding Somber Serenity, they have a mix of Doom, Death and Gothic Metal as the main music styles, but I can also find Black Metal influences, specially during the beginning of "Tragedy Star", which is 100% Black Metal.
The sound of the Germans is not very fast, so I'd say that Doom/Gothic Metal is basically their main music style. There are also a couple of parts where the songs speed up a little, hence the Death Metal influences, which can also be noticed here due to the harsh vocal parts. There are also many nice clean vocals, by the way, which mixed with the harsh ones create a very intense athmosphere of melodic and aggressive symphonies.

Well I have to confess that I didn't enjoyed the Germans music at the very first listen, I got the impression that the songs were to big (1h in 8 tracks) and because of that they tend to be a little monotonous, but after a while their sound really started to make a good impression in me and I was finally able to see what Somber Serenity are all about.
Fans of Doom or Gothic Metal will love this album for sure, and for those who haven't heard of this band before, I'd suggest you to try either "Tragedy Star" or "Goddess Of Light".
The follow up on "Singular" will probably be out this year under the name of "A New Dawn", and I'll be surelly interested in checking it out.

Rating: 8 / 10

Metal March