This German act may well have been forgotten as the sands of time passed. After releasing third album ‘The Crossfire’ way back in 2007 there was a long period of silence until they somewhat ironically broke it with 2023 single ‘I don’t expect I shall return.’ Now armed with a new album the death metal quintet seem quite invigorated and keen to make up for lost time. What I didn’t realise when first listening to this is that no less than three members of the group have past and present ties to one of my favourites of their ilk, Deadlock. This probably explains how they got their melodic hooks into me and although Deadlock too seem somewhat lost in the wilderness of late, this will do nicely for now.

The sound of a crash reverberates and everything briskly piles in as ‘Thy Pathway’ is trod. There’s a blackened tumult at first and a gritty heaving flow to things until the melodicism starts to break through. Vocals are coarse snarling rasps, leads are thick and furious and it’s a seething opening statement guaranteed to get heads banging. Culminating in a delicious acoustic passage a breath can be grabbed before the band bounce straight back in ‘Darkness, I Command’ and it is here that the delicious guitar parts are really allowed to joust and get under the skin. Having moved into a more melodic death metal style it’s both captivating and commanding. The production here is great allowing the brackish thud of the drums to pummel away hell for leather, the leads to flourish and the growls to thickly coarse from the speakers on songs such as the aforementioned single comeback. Everything is kept punchy with little time to outstay its welcome as the group bustle their way through the ten tracks and two short instrumentals over the album’s compact 37-minute running time.

There’s plenty that will appeal to lovers of Swedish melodeath but Fall Of Serenity are no mere copyists and power away with a style of their own designed to pull you in and voraciously spit you out. Shred, groove and bombast are all employed as too is a certain amount of viciousness via the bruising pitch blackness of ‘Chaos Reign.’ The weaving stomp and embittered vocals of ‘A Winter Song’ is likely to appeal to fans of early Amorphis and Amon Amarth and you can easily imagine the group kicking up a dust-storm supporting either band at an outdoor festival. Finishing in style with ‘I Am The End’ summoning to mind the likes of Abbath, Primordial and Bathory the band prove that they are not quite so easy to pin down and actually had me searching to see if this was a cover song and whatever its genesis just goes to prove that the album should gain plenty of widespread appeal. Now if only Deadlock go on to break their silence that would be the icing on the cake!

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

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https://fallofserenitylfr.bandcamp.com/album/open-wide-o-hell