SERENITY – Fallen Sanctuary

Last Year’s Words Untold And Dreams Unlived took many Metal fans by surprise, as the unexpected quality of this band from Austria, who had the chance to present the album and their music as support for Threshold in Europe, catapulted Serenity immediately into the focus of the Melodic Metal scene. Now, only a year later, the five guys present their successor to the debut album. After such a strong debut release, the Band already has to fulfill expectations.

Fortunately, Serenity had to endure no changes in their line-up between the two albums. The two new guys that could be seen on tour were just stand-ins for the original members who could not join the tour as their everyday life and jobs would not allow for it. So it is not surprising that Fallen Sanctuary continues where Words Untold And Dreams Unlived left off.

Symphony Melodic Metal is a fitting description. The keyboards see eye to eye with the guitar and fight a continuous war with the six strings throughout the album, and every now and then one wins a battle, but in the end the fight has to be declared a draw. Of course, guitar purists should check this out with caution, but those who like a mostly up-tempo album with an adequately good production, done in Dreamscape Studios where they had a little help from Oliver Philipps (Everon), who was responsible for the excellent orchestral arrangements, and Lanvall (Edenbridge), among others, can look forward to enjoying this album.

In comparison to their first release, the new album seems more homogeneous than its predecessor, but on the other hand an Übersong like “Canopus” is missing. Georg Neuhauser’s brilliant vocals still remind the listener of early Threshold, while musically the band tends more into the direction of Kamelot, but the combination makes for a great mix that works well on every single song. The songwriting has become more mature, but lost a bit of an edge that was present on Words Untold And Dreams Unlived. Occasionally used grunts and guest Sandra Schleret of Elis help to erect landmarks in the stream of music. Surely, in the years to come the band has to develop and somehow manage to increase their compositional originality to distinguish Serenity from said bands and others of this style, but in the meantime they may pride themselves in being one of the best Austrian Metal bands.