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Serberus > Descension > Reviews
Serberus - Descension

A promise of what might have been - 89%

midgardmetal, January 24th, 2005

Serberus was one of my favorite bands to come out of Colorado, USA, due to their intense live shows, and memorable songwriting that drew both on Gothenburg-style melodic death metal, and on contemporary melodic keyboardless black metal variety. This is their only full-length release, and in itself it comprises a number of remastered and remixed tracks from their earlier "Our Dying Grace" EP, as well as rerecordings of songs from earlier demo "In Eternity", and a few tracks that had not been released.

The story behind this album is rather confusing one, as it was originally supposed to be released a year earlier, by a different label, and under a different name ("Our Dying Grace" - the EP of that name was essentially a demo promoted by the band prior to album's release). By the time of the album's release, Serberus was already on the edge of a breakup, and after a small tour in support of the record was done, the band was finished, with the last few shows not even featuring founding guitarist/singer Ivan Alcala, who was replaced for those by Than Wilson of Wyoming's own Deadspeak. Thus, "Descention"'s release was mired with relative obscurity, and the band's breakup may have factored into the album's lack of publicity.

Which is a pity, considering that what Serberus had to offer was some of the better Gothenburg-styled melodic death metal to come out of the United States. While they were not nearly as experimental as, say, In Eternity, and not as metalcore influenced as Shadows Fall, they served seven melodic, fast tunes that one could still distinguish from one another, and that just warranted the listener to press Repeat button. "Descention" is not going to break any new ground in music, but sometimes good music is made by sheer musical and songwriting competence, and there is a plenty of that here.

While these versions of the songs generally sound superior to the originals, I still prefer the original version of "Ancient Throne", if only due to Dave Otero's vocal intro - however, other than that the only complaint I have about the record is its length. At 31 minutes, it is just too short. While Slayer and many hardcore and grind bands can get away with releasing albums just around half-hour in length, by the end of Serberus' "Descention" one wishes it was at least one or two songs longer. Unfortunately, as the band is no more, this is all we are left with, a promise of what might have been had Serberus been able to stick together. Had that happened, their next album could have been a true masterpiece.