Seraphic - Chrysalis Album Review
Review By: Em Violet
Brisbane band Seraphic are a five piece, female fronted, symphonic metal band who have just released their newest album “Chrysalis”. The band originally formed back in 2014 and in early 2015 they brought their sound to the world with their strong debut of demo tracks and from then on, Seraphic became a force to be reckoned with, with their great tracks and energetic performances.
“Chrysalis” was released on the 30th of October and includes 9 solid tracks, which start off with “Behind the Veil”. The song itself is a 2 minute instrumental that has the sounds of piano give out a creepy feel while a symphonic orchestra then comes in and excites the absolute hell out of me as I fall in love with the sound. Not only that but this track runs perfectly into the next one, titled “Garden of Unearthly Delights” and we finally get to hear the band as a whole. The great mixture of crashing drums, heavy guitars and the perfect vocals from vocalist Sam Wolstenholme. “Shapeshifter” seduces you with the sweet notes of a piano before the flawless vocals and heavy guitars come crashing in alongside some hard drum beats. The melody after the chorus is definitely one of my favourite things as well as the really rad guitars in this track. The forth track, “The Monster Within” greets us with a great rhythm section underneath the guitar which gets listeners pumped for the rest of the song. The instrumentals in this one go hard and pack a punch as it intertwines with the lower vocals and good lyrics. Starting strong with steady drum beats and sick guitars filling up the track is “Midnight” which showcases the instrumentals really well. As the vocals are a lot softer in the chorus - they are somewhat angelic and give you a sense of calm. Piano and guitar strikethrough with a punchy drum beat in “Break” and go well with the low vocals and screams in the chorus. Vocals are a high point of this track as we get a contrast between the different sounding voices.
“The Phoenix” is a more fast paced song on the album - even the piano goes hard in this one. If you love a good melody mixed with fast instruments, this will be your favourite for sure. The last two tracks have a lot of great symphonic sounds - “Transformed” is a lot softer than previous tracks but is still just as perfect whereas “Chrysalis” has a loud bass and softer guitars with higher vocals that just make this song haunting and beautiful.
This band is nothing but talented, I could listen to this album on repeat for days on end. It’s just great symphonic metal from a great Brisbane band. It has everything you need from softer tracks to hard punching ones. If you’re into symphonic metal and you haven’t heard of this band, you are so missing out.
