Arena rockers in waiting from the East of England make a statement
Aside from the fact that MV can remember hearing a Kiss gig from Portman Road football ground on the radio as a kid wherein Paul Stanley warbled in the way that only he can: “good evening Ipswich!”, we must be honest, we can’t really think of too much rock from that part of the world.
Armed with curiosity and Google, we searched for “bands from Suffolk” and covers bands with brilliant names like Bert’s Beard and (my personal favourite) The Delta Beltas came up, but we digress.
Anyway, the point to this intro (and yes, by Christ there was one) is that the county of Suffolk is about to be put on the rock n roll map.
At least it will if Scream Serenity have anything to do with it, because they have very serious intentions indeed.
The 10 songs that make up “Eye Of The Storm” are huge. It is also worth pointing out that this is their debut album. Not that there is any sort of finding your feet nervously here. So confident is this that it merely kicks the door down, invites itself in and helps itself to whatever it chooses.
As if it needs to prove a point, the album actually starts with what effectively amounts to its own intro tape, before “Best Of The Worst” kicks off with a mighty riff and a solo. Rock bonus points in the bag it is simply off and running.
“Good Business” likes that idea so much it basically does it again. Big of hook and bigger of chorus, you can see why the press release that accompanies this says it’s for fans of Shinedown. Now, regular readers will know that this reviewer has no time for they of “Bully”, and this collection has the soul and the grit that the anodyne US outfit, so dull they would suck the fun out of Paradise City, sadly lack.
Instead it would be far better to compare Scream Serenity to Brit arena rockers in waiting Stone Broken, “Save Yourself” for example with its bass groove has more bollocks than anything Shinedown will ever do.
“Run Away” is glorious attempt at making a power ballad, it has elements of Nickelback (this is, as always, a compliment on this site), while the title track proves that even the quiet ones on this marvellous album brood ominously, and my, what a glorious slab of noise the chorus is!
“Enough” is a real highlight amongst many. Stone Sour (another compliment on these pages) would be proud of what amounts to a lesson in hard rock and any record that has a Thin Lizzy style twin guitar solo – like the outro here – is just dandy. “Better Off” has an air of Skid Row about it, and shows why the four piece are just as comfortable supporting FM as they were Toseland.
“Nowhere Town” has the type of youthful frustration that has occupied bands for decades, but this packs a real downtuned punch, while in “Waiting For The Answers” they show that they might get heavier as time progresses, because this seethes with a deep-rooted anger.
One of the finest debut albums anywhere this year – never mind one by a British band – ends with the more mellow “Rest (Before The Storm)” and with its echoes of Screaming Trees, you are left marvelling at a band that could be anything they want.
Scream Serenity deserve to have it shouted from the rooftops – and if you will forgive the obligatory weather reference – with “Eye Of The Storm” they are going to blow through just about everywhere leaving all kinds of destruction in their wake.
Rating 9/10
