Produced by Greg Chandler
Released: October 2008
A few years back, the members of Belgium's Thee Plague of Gentlemen were gearing up for their second album release when their singer got arrested for being a child rapist and thrown in the can, hopefully to never see freedom again. The rest of the band did what any self-respecting group of people would do when confronted with a truth such as this, and utterly disavowed all association with the guy. They did hang on to a few of the songs they were working on, though, as well as the name of the album: SerpentCult. Two years on, with Michelle Nocon handling the vocal duties, Weight of Light surfaced from the sludge, recorded under the guiding hand of Greg Chandler, the vocalist from Esoteric whose first album, Epistemological Despondency, is one of the greatest doom albums of all time.
Where SerpentCult succeeds is that they manage to combine immense, sludgy guitars with a distinctive undercurrent of groovy bass lines and a singular vocal style that sets them apart from many of the other bands of their style. Where they fail is that, like many other bands of their style, the songs eventually blur into the sameness of huge, slow, similar-sounding riffs. They don't succumb completely, but SerpentCult is a band playing a genre of metal that is stylistically limited.
On Weight of Light, they are something like a cross between Cathedral and Pentagram, with the occasional experimental aspects of Electric Wizard added in for good measure, particularly in the swirling, psychedelic closing passages of the final track. "New World Order" begins in a big fuzzy rocking mode and Nocon's raw, bluesy and ballsy vocals really stand out. The next two songs highlight SerpentCult's doomier aspects but the aggressive vocals still ring out and the pulsing groove helps drive them along. After this, the pace of the album slows down considerably. "Awaken the Kraken" and "Arkanum" merge subtly into one another, but it feels rather like the middle act of an otherwise decent movie where it all starts to get bogged down in plot. "Arkanum" trudges on for over five minutes before Nocon gets to do anything and without a nuance of lead guitar anywhere it's like standing in the surf getting pounded by half-arsed waves waiting for a decent one that never comes. Finally, "Red Dawn" arrives and Weight of Light is back on track, keeping itself both within the confines of doom while subtly pushing its boundaries.
This is quite a good debut from a band that isn't afraid to try things that are a little different. Hopefully they will continue to try even harder and make something truly spectacular.
- New World Order
- Screams From the Deep
- Weight of Light
- Awaken the Kraken
- Arkanum
- Red Dawn
- Templar
- SerpentCult
Rating: 75%
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