"Trident Nor Fire" is the rather unique debut EP from Belgium's Serpent Cult (released by I Hate), and this shit is heavy. I'm talking just ridiculously dense, churning, downtuned riffs galore gelling together with plodding pulses of bass and thundering percussion—all alongside great (and wholly unexpected) female vocals that only add to the band's atypical stance within this particular realm of metal. It's slow, but not too slow. Sludgy, but not too sludgy. So, yeah... it basically rules. The sheer fury and mass of some of the rhythms actually reminds me of the mighty Crowbar to some degree, but with more of a doomy sort of "contemporary Sabbath" thing going on. Hell, they close with a cover of Uriah Heep's "Rainbow Demon", so that sort of gives you an idea of where some of their influences are coming from, but... rest assured the end result's definitely 1,000 times more crushing! And unlike many bands that operate within a similar musical space, Serpent Cult actually keeps things reigned in as far as song length, which is great. No track hits five minutes, so rather than beating you over the head and dragging the slow, pounding scenarios on and on and on, they take care of business and pack it in—thus leaving you wanting more! The recording's a touch on the muddy side, but it's probably intentional (Or perhaps unavoidable!) considering how fucking thick, nasty, and powerful these riffs are. And shit, it certainly doesn't matter, because it sounds pretty fuckin' great! Absolutely fucking awesome artwork as well. That shit caught my eye right off the bat. Very cool.
If you like what you hear, pick this shit up and revel in the power of the riff:
Comments
Just for your information. The guys in the band are 3 quarters of Thee Plague Of Gentlemen. That band got suspended after their singer and bandleader was imprisoned for paedophilic acts. No joke. But TPOG’s latest album Primula Pestis turned quite a few heads so if you like this, you can always steal that one from the net. Nobody wants to make money with it anymore so it should be okay. It was released on I hate as well but won’t sell it anymore I think. Definitely buy Serpentcult though.
5.29.2007 | By stevhan_ti
Heh, I specifically didn’t mention that because it seems like everyone else mentions it, and I didn’t want people to get the wrong impression or misjudge this band based on the disgusting deeds of one of their former bandmates…
5.29.2007 | By Andrew Aversionline
oh my bad. But TPOG never was a band anyway, just Sick Steve and bunch of hired guns. Serpentcult sounds much more like a band to me.
5.29.2007 | By stevhan_ti
This still sounds awesome to me, no matter if the band members have known people who ate shit or what…
5.29.2007 | By Anonymous
wait…ok…so the rest of the band took the album name that they were workin on as TPOG and used it as a new band name?
5.29.2007 | By Adrianoso
The clean vocals weren’t doing it for me at first, but I hung in there and just let the riffs carry me along (and what riffs they are, as you stated). And buy the end, I was buying the vocals a lot more. Still not totally won over, but I’ve had enough of a change of heart to make me want to hear the rest of it. Another record sale thanks to this blog… thanks Andrew!
5.29.2007 | By Karl J
oh, YEAH! the clean female vocals add a truly unique feel to this. she lets out a little grunt though at 3:42, i wonder if there’s more of that in other songs. kind of reminds me of the mighty down as well. great shit overall. thanks.
5.30.2007 | By chris
Wow. That is seriously fucking crushing. Just out of interest, how do you find out about these random bands?
5.30.2007 | By Talvalin
Yeah, I was with Karl at first. I wasn’t really buyin it. However, the sheer power of those riffs WAY outweighs that minor gripe.
5.30.2007 | By Adrianoso
Oh hell yeah. I am so into this. The vocals rule, and that bass work is bad-ass (sounds like it’s occasionally going through a wah or envelope filter?). Gotta look into this.
5.30.2007 | By Invisible Oranges
I gotta give kudos to The End Records mail-order folks. I ordered this on Tuesday night immediately after reading/listening to this, and I got it today (Friday). And the shipping was free (unlike, say, Relapse, who charge you a hefty shipping fee no matter how large the order).
6.1.2007 | By Karl J
I’ve been looking for something like The Sword, but less doom/psychedelic and more like Dio era Sabbath. This is awesome.
6.4.2007 | By Dave
i just picked this up from All That’s Heavy. some serioulsy monstrous riffage.
7.12.2007 | By TylerWagnon