Via Metal Archives : "Last year Serocs presented “The Phobos/Deimos Suite” on Everlasting Spew Records, which was on my top 10 2018 brutal technical death metal records. Serocs is an international effort of different musicians hailing from countries like Canada, United States and Mexico. Antonio Freyre being the principal mastermind and songwriting force of the band since the demo “Homogenous Dissimilation”.
After listening to “The Phobos/Deimos Suite” several times I noticed different aspects that I have to highlight.
First, the songs are very memorable, sometimes you listen to bands from the same subgenre (brutal technical death metal) and just after you finish you can´t remember any patter or hook and that´s because of the song writing or production. The musicians in this recording offer their technique in pro of the songwriting, instead of showing off endless solos and “look at my 8-string guitar, bro!” bullshit. In fact, there are no solos during this album, just smart and flowy riffs that make the experience very memorable and dynamic. For example, take songs like “Revenants”, “Nihilus” and “SCP-106” as pieces of noteworthy value for their brutal/intricate structure. On the vocal department, you can hear lows and highs but with cavernous characteristics that increase the whole auditive experience and back up the instrumentation smoothly.
Second, talking about production, it is very organic, it feels very human like; it is not over produced and the instrumentation does not show off unnecessary excesses of technique. The production keeps a certain dirtiness in their sound it is not totally pristine, even though all instruments sound clearly. That fact separates this band from the bunch, sometimes in this death metal subgenre the music sounds very robotic, and I don´t like robots farting in my death metal, I like it organic and old school. In this recording all departments are covered, drums, vocals, bass and guitars; a perfect example is the starting track “Being”, where you can here how the bass punches without sounding fake. There is even an instrumental track almost in the middle of the record called “Lethe” and t does not ruin the experience; it actually makes of an awesome sci-fi like transition to the last part of the album.
Last but not least, I consider the death metal scene tend to be tiring due to the proliferation of bands that rely on gory, sci-fi or cosmic horror imagery. Those bands tend to be very predictable from the very beginning with dismembered bodies or monumental and unspeakable horrors in their cd covers and lyrics. Serocs breaks the mold and takes a more psychological/oneiric approach. For instance, “The Phobos/Deimos Suite” cd cover portraits a decayed human figure with the face melting that allows your imagination to speculate of what´s to come and I like that fact. Lyrics on the other hand, fluctuate from delusions to inner psychological problems that lead to insanity.
In order to synthetize what I said about “The Phobos/Deimos Suite”, I can assure that the wheel has not being re invented in the brutal technical death metal sound, instead, it has been refreshed and revitalized. For instance, take the last track in the album, “Deimos”, it is an epic piece by itself even though is the longest song but it is very memorable and you end up begging for more! Don´t look here for the unnecessary intricate and overproduced robot sound that bands like ArchSpire or Brain Drill offer, you will only find organic and old school dynamics more similar to the ones of old Cryptopsy and Suffocation. So, I leave on your consideration, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and this is mine about Seroc´s latest album. Go and find out by yourself." 100/100 Originally written by FaithAsshole for metal-archives.com
