Serious Black - As Daylight Breaks

Published January 22 2015

*=Staff's pick	I Seek No Other Life* High And Low Sealing My Fate Temple Of The Sun Akhenaton* My Mystic Mind Trail Of Murder As Daylight Breaks Setting Fire To The Earth* Listen To The Storm Older And Wiser*

Genre	Heavy Metal	Urban Breed	Vocals
Tracks	11	Roland Grapow	Guitar
Running time	42 Min.	Dominik Sebastian	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Mario Lochert	Bass
Release	16 January 2015	Thomen Stauch	Drums
Country	Germany i.a.	Jan Vacik	Keyboard
Producer	-
Similar artists	---

A new band, originally brought to life by Mario Lochert and Roland Grapow and if all band members, now collaborating as Serious Black, would have been a little more well-known, even outside of the really dedicated metalhead's sphere, this unit could have been named a supergroup by some labels, just to put some additional value to the band's existence, not being aware of that people don't give a shit about that vapid title anymore. Luckily this scenario hasn't yet occurred really and I think that these musicians feel comfortable with not being forced to get some extra pressure on their hard work.

This constellation of rockers delivers heavy metal with elements of melodic metal and partly some really obvious power metal influences, which at the end of the day isn't particularly surprising when having a quick look at the band's roster. I think that this release contains a lot of good songs. The band is absolutely successful when it comes to put out good melodies, both music- and song-wise. Although all songs don't strike me like a slap in the face, it's quite easy to get charmed by a lot of the activity on the record.

Roland Grapow's input doesn't deviate from his standards really. His tempo changes in the music and his way to push the performance forward are both recognizable from his later work with his main band Masterplan, even though this new record definitely has a greater outcome when looking strictly at the songs' quality and attraction. What is now uncovered with Serious Black is undoubtedly his best end result in a full decade. Urban Breed is indeed a talented metal vocalist and his presence gives the music a specific and signalizing touch, which often happens when this Swedish expatriate participates on a recording. He is also able to come out with really terrific parts to elevate the full performance into captivating moments.

This is supposed to be a real band and not just a project among many others. We have all arguably seen statements like this many times before, so it remains to be seen what the future holds for Serious Black. I personally believe that this band is something for those involved to really go for on a long-term basis. The record contains rather consistently accurate material, where focus is set to create nice melodies on top of metal music and the band manages to come out relevant and without being too repetitive as well. As far as I'm concerned, As Daylight Breaks is a strong debut from a bunch of talented guys that have already been on the metal scene for ages.