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Directly from
Taiwan a double pack landed on my desktop. Double pack because
SERAPHIM went to the trouble of sending me their effort
The Soul That Never Dies as English version as
well as Chinese version.
Outside there
is no difference. The cover artwork is the same; the English version
is just a bit darker. Only the graphics directly on the CD are
in different colours. And of course the Chinese version is in
the Chinese language *LOL *
SERAPHIM
was founded back in 2001. So it is still a young band, but the
single members already can show a formidable background. They
all already played in other bands before.
SERAPHIM present pure Power Metal, where the northern lights
of Nightwish had been the godfathers. The figurehead of this band
is without a doubt singer Pay, who has a classic training. She
has a very expressive and striking voice. But admittedly her voice
is too often in the high-pitched levels for my taste. That it
also can go in other ways prove songs like Mind's Sky (on
the beginning) and Canticle where Pay sings on deeper levels
which give the songs a fantastic drive. Also her singing in two
voices like at Immortal Silence knows how to impress. Only
the singing art of bassist Jax is not acceptable and needs to
get trained.
On the other hand the musicians with their skills are above all
doubts. Especially lead guitarist "Evil" Dan is a true guitar
hero and a master of his trade. And he is fast as hell! The keyboard
lines come from guest musician Maggie.
Overall the band offers us 11 tracks where only one of them is
just less than 5 minutes. With Mind's Sky - over 9 minutes
and Majestic Farewell - over 10 minutes you will find two
XL chunks. The songs are varied and often riddled with instrumental
interludes, but they only can shine because of Dan's solos, which
are in fact very skilful but too often used. This makes the songs
lengthy and overloaded. Again impressing is the ten-sided booklet.
It is graphically well designed and starts with the chapter Isaiah
6:2 which explains the seraphim.
At the end I expected to hear any Chinese influences in the music,
but there is nothing. You only can feel a special Asian magic
what makes clear that it is not an European or American band.
Upshot: The
debut album The Soul That Never Dies is in musical
respect a formidable effort. But SERAPHIM should work out
Jax' singing. Pay's singing should not be that stringent in the
foreground. The production could bear up a bit more power. Another
thing, the band should start to go away from their paragons and
create more of their own style. There is potential enough to do
that. They just need to use it. The Chinese version impressed
me because of the exotic language and their style ...
Seraphim
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