TIMLESSNESS

SERDCE dates back to 1997 when the band formed in Gomel, Belarus as Cor but having relocated to the capital city Minsk, singer and guitarist Nik Goroshko changed the band's name to SERDCE and crafted a unique brand of death metal that soon would become more infused with elements of progressive rock and jazz-fusion which made the band stand out from the very beginning despite being compared to many other more technical infused death metal ban ds like Sadist, Cynic, Atheist, Martyr and Augury. While the band's debut "Аритмия" got the band's feet wet as far as the recording process was concerned, it wasn't until the band's second album "Cyberly" that they dropped the Russian language and looked internationally beyond the borders of their homeland and only released albums and track titles in English.

TIMELESSNESS is the band's fourth album and last since 2014 and the band seems to be in hibernation as no official breakup has been announced as far as i'm aware. This album which features the lineup Nik Goroshko (vocals, guitars), Alex Kharevich (bass), Oleg Kreslavskij (keyboards, programming) and Andrew D. Dybal (drums, percussion) continues the unique amalgamation of tech death metal with jazz and classical elements only adds heavier doses of progressive rock. Similar to progressively inclined extreme metal bands like Enslaved, Mastodon and Cynic, SERDCE began with the emphasis more on the extreme metal parts but continued to expand the sonic palette to include various tones and textures along with more liberal uses of clean vocal styles.

While technical death metal and progressive death metal are often two totally different beasts altogether, other times they overlap quite nicely and that's exactly where SERDCE fits in. While the brutality of the time signature rich death metal guitar riffs and blastbeats are omnipresent, the album often sounds more like a bonafide progressive metal album with meandering song structures that zigzag in unpredictable ways along with ample moments of non-metal via classical piano rolls, atmospheric chamber rock backdrops or jazzy interludes. Nik Goroshko employs clean vocal techniques as often as the gnarled aggressive growls. Melancholic violins and pianos evoke a bit of My Dying Bride while heavy instrumental stampedes with keyboard frenzies bring Dream Theater to mind.

TIMELESSNESS hosts ten tracks that clock up to 66 minutes with two of them: "Omens" and "Last Faith" straddling past the nine minute mark. While the remaining tracks may constitute shorter playing times, they are no less complex and stuffed to the gills with hairpin tech death twists and turns that can at a drop of a hat burst into a lush piano recital with soft sensual chamber rock orchestration. The album is all about contrast and SERDCE nails both aspects of the musical spectrum. The death metal parts are about as technically infused as one could hope for along with the bombast and orotundity while the soft and heart-warming segments almost fall into the post-rock realms however the piano runs tend to evoke Chopin's playing prowess.

For those who prefer the earlier albums that were predominantly extreme metal with samplings of jazz and prog thrown in, TIMELESSNESS may not scratch that itch but if you were hoping for a little more down time and breathing room away from the metal madness and into the more symphonic prog universe then this album will hit all the high notes. The band is extremely inventive in how they throw all of this together. Perhaps the opening track "Into Shambhala" is a little hokey as it sounds like some sort of new age album and continues on for over 3 minutes but once the second track "Smadhi" hits, the band dishes out a series of deliciously decorated tech death art metal bonbons that work on many levels. While this is an amazingly mature album, i do wish it had been trimmed a bit of the fat. That would serve it much better.

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