SERAFIN'S debut single "Things Fall Apart" was something of a perception destroyer for your reviewer, who'd previously expected them to be an overwrought metal outfit. Instead, he got an edgy, intelligent and unpredictable lean rock machine with a penchant for unlikely David Bowie covers.
That opening salvo actually played with the grown-ups, by charting in the lower reaches of the Top 50,ensuring there's a big noise surrounding its' erstwhile follow up, "Day By Day." So, the question is: will Serafin start lording it on the sea to rock'n'roll Valhalla, or while they fold like sensitive wusses?
Well, it's very much the former. No contest, actually, as "Day By Day" does the business and then some. Crunching into existence via the supernaturally ace Ronny Growler/ Ben Ellis rhythm section, by the time guitarist Daryn Harkness and singer Ben Fox Smith have entered the fray, this one's already got "impressive" stamped all over its' forehead and it goes on to show that Serafin are really rather good at this Queens Of The Stone Age beat up REM ("Document" era) stuff.
|
It gets weirder, but no less compelling, with the strange "Countries For Breakfast." I'm not entirely sure whether it's a comment on megolamania or a sarky stab at the music biz circus ("Taking stages of all ages, I'll make a man out of you," threatens Fox amidst the bonzer wooze-out it becomes), but it's enough to make you hit 'repeat', whatever. Final tune "How To Think Of Always" is a little more genetic and less crucial, with serious nods to My Vitriol apparent, although it does again feature some cool chromatic, top-end gear from Ellis, which is enough to get my vote.
"Day By Day",then, does anything but fold at the first hurdle. These men of iron with softies' hearts march on. I'll let you into a secret early: the album's top as well.
|
