SENECA – Reflections

What is the link between a Greek philosopher and a US Metalcore Band? Maybe the band can tell us, because it seems there is none. And the Metalcore of this US five piece is as ungreek as possible. Well, maybe Seneca and Greece is the big, wide world for you if you live in Charlotte, North Carolina. Because that may not be the end of the world, but you can definitely see it from there. That may also be an excuse for the band, which creates noise for over six years now, and one has to grant them the benefit of the doubt. Which doubt? Well, one can doubt that Seneca really, really had not noticed that there was, and is, an overabundance of Metalcore bands that all sound quite alike.

Reflections is an album of which anybody who likes Metalcore in general will have several examples already shelved away. That may be a very hard judgement on the musicians who basically do nothing wrong except being a few years too late. The singer is a great shouter, the occasional, but rather rare clear voice parts are satisfying. A powerful sound (Jamie King did it, and he worked for several other Metalcore bands before, which means the sound is just another trait by which the band cannot stand out of the masses), some great riffs, and an overall talent for songs – it is all there. But the combination is just nothing one had not heard before. Many times.

To do the band justice, there are several tracks that do indeed make one listen closer. “Black Gold” has a very catchy chorus, which almost goes Alternative, something the band does fully with the good, short ballad-like “Illusions”. Also the rhythm of “The 29th Day” is quite cool, and “Creator” is Death Metal, no core at all. The rest of the songs are aggressive, well done Metalcore with increasing Death Metal influences the closer one gets to the end of the album. No more, no less. If you spin the classics of the genre still, enjoy a new Metalcore album now and then or even more frequently, go out and definitely get this one. It has all you want, it may even make many of the albums in your collection pale in comparison. But if Metalcore if not exactly down your alley, Reflections will offer absolutely nothing for you.

It is difficult to judge an album like that. It has no real flaw except that the timing is not optimal. But the band has been around for more than half a decade, they now have made two albums, and there is no reason why the band should not continue down this road and maybe sophisticate their style until the wave, some call it the New Wave Of American Metal, has ebbed away. Unfortunately, until it does and the vivid memory of exchangeable whatevercore-clones has died away, Seneca will have a hard time. But who’s to say what the band will sound like in a few years from now? Since the skills are there, we all owe them two things: First, check out their music on their Myspace-site to find out if one belongs to the first or the second group of people described above. And secondly, to keep an open ear for their future release. But that should be the case anyway.