It's easy to be condemned by association in dear old rock'n'roll. We need our readily-available comparisons like we need air and the fact that "if you like that band then you'll probably like these" is the obvious modus operandi.
Fair enough an' all (I mean, since when did your reviewer not use comparisons?), but working solely on this premise ensures you miss out on loads great bands if you don't have the dilgence to dig deeper when left to your own devices. London's cracking rockers SERAFIN are a good example: they're on Muse's label, they've toured with them and other, tricksy, cerebrally-inclined outfits (Feeder and the abysmal InMe spring to mind), thereore they must be cut from the same cloth, right?
No. That's far too simplistic. Sure, there are certain similarities. For instance, Serafin do have a penchant for ye olde, Nirvana-patented quiet/loud dynamics and lyrically, frontman Ben Fox-Smith has a tendency to slip into Matt Bellamy-style oblique cerebrality, but they have precious little of Muse's widdlesome tendencies and - at least to this hack's battle-scarred lugs - much of "No Push Collide" suggests they may also have been quietly venerating sizeable chunks of REM, Husker Du and Guided By Voices' back catalogues.
Recent singles "Things Fall Apart" and "Day By Day" are both present and correct and, while they are the catchiest things here, most of "No Push Collide" cranks up the drama and tension and makes a convincing case for Serafin as one of the UK's currently best hard rock bands.
And take heed of that term, for despite their Kerrang! praise and Fox-Smith's occasional larynx-shredding tendencies, Serafin are anything but a no-brainer metal band. A pop heart pulses strongly beneath this volatile beast, and however hard they try to be hard and menacing, songs like the frighteningly Placebo-like "Ordinary Me" and the bass-heavy "Build High, Tear Low" ("have you ever wondered what it's like to be saved?" they murmur ominously) can't resist lobbing in catchy choruses to confound the guitars' serrated edges. "Green Disaster Twice," meanwhile, proffers the kind of expansive, distressed sound Radiohead excelled at when they made "The Bends". It's loud, propulsive stuff, played with concern and furrowed brows, but - crucially - doesn't pawn all its' tunes for a pittance before it arrives at the studio.
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Yeah, bits of it underachieve. "Peaches From Spain" is an ineffective acoustic sliver and both "Lethargy" and "Sage Waits" DO descend (mea culpa) into Muse-style tricky tempo hell, but these are the only exceptions and pale into insignificance when pitted against the apocalpyptic, we're-losing-it concerns of the opening "Stephen's In The Sky" (tag line: "I need people, any people") and the eerie invention of the closing "Who Could I Be?"
"No Push Collide" is by turns dark, claustrophobic, tuneful, challenging and exhilarating and makes it blatantly obvious Serafin are already a bloody fine thinking man's hard rock band. Like their name (an amalgam of Cherubim and Seraphim, apparently) they are an impressive coagulation of possibilities and are clearly on the side of the angels. Let's welcome them without prejudice.
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