May

Impending Doom - The Serpent Servant

"am I going to recommend this album to a friend? Yessir!"

Follow up:

9.5/10

1. When Waters Run Deep - 1:01
2. The Serpent Servant - 3:26
3. Anything Goes - 4:42
4. Storming The Gates Of Hell - 3:43
5. Welcome To Forever - 3:46
6. More Than Conquerors - 4:27 Watch the video!
7. Revival: America - 2:35
8. In The House Of Mourning - 2:38
9. When I Speak - 3:52
10. City Of Refuge - 2:42
11. Beginnings - 2:55

Honestly, I really don’t know where to start with this review. Impending Doom, the Death metal five piece of Riverside, Cali, has grown up significantly on their new album, “The Serpent Servant”, since there first release, “Nailed. Dead. Risen.” With Nailed., while listening to the album, I kind of felt like I was listening to a cover of a cover of a death metal band. It was good, but felt so unnatural. With the new album, they don’t force it, it just comes about organically. I’ve watched this band since the very beginning and I must say; this album has taken me completely by surprise.

This time around, the vocalist, Brook Reeve’s, has blindsided me with his vocal changes. In the first album, his vocals were completely sludgy/doomy and didn’t have much form but were still good. This time around he has cleaned them up, and added some more range, but still sticks mainly to the low growling, which is A-ok with me. You can actually understand what he is trying to get across now, as opposed to trying to decipher a single word through an entire song in regards to the first album.

The vocals aren’t the only thing that has gone through some refurbishing. Upon hearing the drums for this album, my jaw dropped, and didn’t close again until the end of the album. Chad Blackwell has also cleaned up his act, adding even more super-gnar fills, and even some nice driving double-bass action. Where as in the last album, we got a lot of blast beats, and that’s pretty much all we got. Don’t get me wrong, we still get the blasts, but we get them with some tasty new stuff as well.

In addition, Cory Johnson(guitars), Manny Contreras(guitars) and Dave Sittig(bass) have also got some new goodies in store for us. Example: the lead guitar has taken a turn for the better. When you hear those groovy, wicked-evil doom lead lines that you didn’t hear on the first album, you’ll know what I’m talking about. ‘Nuff said.

Overall, this band has progressed so much and it makes me extremely happy and proud to have been able to be a part of their growing up process. However, just like the book “Everyone Poops” by Tari Gomi (a personal favorite of mine that has helped me overcome several personal boundaries in the field of bowel movements), Everything comes with its downsides. The album tends to get a bit repetitive after track nine. the CD is only eleven tracks though, so we are all good there. Also, completely off the topic of their musicianship and general rockingness, I had the good fortune to see Impending Doom on their winter tour with The Acacia Strain and As Blood Runs Black(which were very disappointing, but I’ll save that story for another review). Upon them walking out on the stage, they were all wearing black button down shirts, with there new insignia on the pocket. Which to me, strangely resembles that of Slipknot, those silly masked-bastards who run around hitting beer kegs with beater sticks and generally sucking all together. Where their musicianship lacked, there sweet Halloween costumes made up for it(totally kidding, I swear to goth I didn’t attend one of their Atlanta shows in August 2004, honest). Regardless, Just a minor detail is all.

In conclusion, am I going to recommend this album to a friend? Yessir! Am I going to listen to it on a regular basis and hang tough while doing so? Youuuu Betcha!