SEROTONAL – The Futility Of Trying To Avoid The Unavoidable

The first feeling while listening to The Futility Of Trying To Avoid The Unavoidable? Back to the roots I’d say ;) As soon as the first tones sound and Darren White starts to sing one will inevitably feel remembered to very old Anathema. And that’s not the only point. SEROTONAL are musically as well as stylistically real soulmates to Anathema ;) Must be the water in Liverpool, since they all emanate from this town. Thus, the direct influence can’t be dismissed…
Surprisingly insofar is the fact that Gary Hill (git, samples) and Jon Francis (git, keys) invited Darren to join SEROTANAL when most of the songs were already written. So, it was not Darren leaving this special kind of impact on this music. But I guess he feels much homey in this band ;)
The Futility Of Trying To Avoid The Unavoidable is just a 3-track demo with another two bonus songs, all recorded in 2005.
Now let’s clear the question: what’s the difference between SEROTONAL and Anathema? Where does this trio has its strength and an own approach, instead of being just a plagiarism?
Well, there not so many differences to point out. The music is more electronic-based. Heavy rockin’ guitars come late, if at all. SEROTONAL instrumentally focus on acoustic guitars and the piano, with the samples in the background. Nevertheless, opening track Chosen Words could have been taken from an old Anathema record too, while the guitar intro to All You’ll Ever See sounds much similar to the piano intro of Clan Of Xymox’ Without A Name.
Unfortunately Darren White more bellows than sings on the both bonus tracks You Can Love Again and A Soul Like Me (ever heard One Last Goodbye? ;)) and immediately destroys the just built up atmosphere again.
Generally speaking I really love this music, you know, touches some special strings, but it’s too much copied and influenced, to little of an own style and charisma. Too bad!