Serpentine by Flowing Tears

Serpentine is the second major label album for this German band, Flowing Tears. It’s a somber album that warms up the metal here and there. For all the Lacuna Coil and (Mandylion/Nighttime Birds era) The Gathering references that I shudder to with other band reviews, I will actually have to agree somewhat to this comparison of gothic styled metal. And the three bands seem gothic but are not completely. That is, they use the musical elements for the most part (the dark sounds, melancholy, drone, etc) but do not embrace the Gothic themes, cliché’s and most distinctly, the singing style. However, where Lacuna Coil prefers songs of conflict of a personal nature and The Gathering sings poetic abstraction, Flowing Tears seems to be narrative almost to the point of being progressive rock styled. Power metal bands follow fantastic story lines as well and it wouldn’t be too far fetched to add a comparison with Finland’s Nightwish.

This is also true especially when Flowing Tear’s guitars sound just as warm and compressed as the Nightwish sound. Stephanie Duchene has a similar voice to the guitars and her commanding role with this music makes Serpentine stand apart. And there’s a reason why I’ll make a point of her singing… She is good at mixing a bit of folk style to navigate briefly exotic melodies using a strong alto voice and breathy effect. I am oddly reminded of latter day, and proclaimed AOR act Asia with John Payne. Both singers have the husky tone and use it distinctively for some sort of oriental-like crooning. Oddly set to almost lackluster metal from the band, Stephanie makes it mesmerizing almost to the point where it can catch you off guard with its simplicity. She deserves to be among the divas of the aforementioned bands in this comparison. However I think she deserves more from the band as well. .

Score 3/5

by Alzn