SERENADE „Onirica”

Revalve Records, 2017

Music: Symphonic Gothic Metal

Website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Serenade/130539569007

Duration: 39:24 minutes (9 tracks)

Country: Italy

These Italians are active yet, because they formed the band in 2009 and their released the second album “Onirica”, which was premiered in November 2017. I have traced the history of the band a bit… The first album was made in 2012 and was entitled “Wandering Through Sorrow” and has eleven songs, and after five years we have another album entitled “Onirica” with nine songs released in digipack with a frosty cover-art of booklet. In addition, the line-up of the band has changed. Currently, the five artists create it, the male part is responsible for the instruments, and the vocal mainly belongs to the woman. As the first album and the second album is qualiffied as Symphonic Gothic Metal.

For the first moments of listening “Onirica” I had the impression that everything is fine, the everything goes well, but contemporary’s scene of Metal music is so extensive both instrumentally and vocally that during of comparison we can see different defects. Here while instrumentally it is quite interesting, the compositions are a combination of light sounds with heavy guitar riffs, that creates an interesting musical atmosphere for the listeners.This climate is still in style of Metal music but it’s complemented by gothic and even symphonic inserts.

The songs do not lack heaviness and at the same time they got good melodic background, which additionally adds harmony and it all together makes a good sound. Vocally, it is not always good. The male vocal sounds much better and in combination with the female singing significantly improves sound and quality of the female vocal. The female vocal generally sounds good, although I have such a feeling that it does not always fit in the pitch. The slower parts which are sung lower are much better than those with a high pitch, that sometimes just fails. The vocal range balances between gothic singing and operatic vocal. Perhaps someone will accuse me of hearing badly, but as before I wrote the world of sounds and vocals is an institution without borders, which gathers a lot of talented artists and there is to whom to compare. I compare this singing with Tarja Turunen and maybe that is why I hear defects, that may not be important to others listeners.

In summary, the band creates songs with thought out arrangations and instrumentations. The music is nice to listen to, and the songs are catchy creating a good mood. I think that their music will find the audience for whom they will become the next musical chapter in their lives and how I read somewhere they will find a lively interest and break into the hearts of listeners… I will be definitely remember SERENADE and their album “Onirica”.

Tracklist:

1. Insomnia

2. When Darkness Will Fall

3. Kill Your Pain

4. Hold Me Back

5. Oceanus

6. Lullaby

7. Stormborn

8. Luceafarul

9. Sleeping Dream