Eleven years ago, BG-colleague Pedro Bekkers reviewed Cea Serin's second album The Vibrant Sound Of Bliss And Decay (2014, see review) and he had mixed feelings about that album. Now, I have the "honour" to review Cea Serin's new album, their third studio album, called The World Outside, and after a couple of intense spins I can only conclude that this is a great album indeed! Cea Serin's new album features six songs with no track venturing under the ten-minute mark: the longest All The Light That Shines clocking in at almost fourteen minutes. The sound of this Louisiana-based band is a mix of melodic death, new age, prog metal, and electronic musical influences; so, think Dream Theater, Threshold, Amorphis, Opeth and even Gojira and you know what to expect! Cea Serin opens this prog metal monster album with Where None Shall Follow, which is almost an opus in itself, as it is mellow, heartfelt, aggressive - check out the furious riffs that remind me of Evergrey-, but also featuring a wonderful lengthy instrumental passage in the middle of the song with clean guitar parts and quiet keyboard melodies. Follow up The Rose On The Ruin offers the listener beautiful classical piano passages, and the female vocals of Steffi Cannelli (Cirque Du Soleil) add an extra dimension to this track, while the wonderful guitar solo of Andy Gillion adds another phenomenal musical layer to this song. Until The Dark Responds is the highlight of The World Outside; an absolute musical prog metal rollercoaster packed with spicy guitar solos by Joao Miguel (Rise To Fall), Vick LeCar (Platinum One) and Steve Blaze (Lillian Axe), keyboard solos by Jay Lamm and harp and violin solos by Cecilia Cuccolini and Coen Strouken. All The Light That Shines is another powerful track with lots of melody and variety while When The Wretched And The Brave Align is dominated by the impressive bass guitar work of Jay Lamm, reminding me of Geddy Lee and John Myung. The vocals of Lamm are, for most of the time "normal" uplifting and clean but he also delivers some mean growls and semi-growls throughout most of the songs, which is the only thing I tend to nag about...but not really tough.... Cea Serin's new album ends with Wisdom Of The Aging Fathers: Three Regards To Reason - what an almost idiotic title, by the way- and this track is again an epic one, showcasing the excellent musicianship of this band with bright vocal harmonies and a wonderful long keyboard/guitar fadeout; ending The World Outside in an almost perfect way! So, do not miss The World Outside if you like/love experimental prog metal with electronic, classical, and cinematic aspects, packed with soaring guitar and keyboard solos that give you goosebumps all over. Needless to say, you have to play this album LOUD!! Listening tip: Until The Dark Responds! **** Martien Koolen (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
