{"id":13871,"date":"2013-10-01T00:00:03","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T00:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=13871"},"modified":"2013-10-06T13:38:09","modified_gmt":"2013-10-06T13:38:09","slug":"album-review-serocs-the-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-serocs-the-next\/","title":{"rendered":"SEROCS – The Next (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEROCS
The Next<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nComatose Music (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Originally formed as a one-man project by Mexican guitarist Antonio Freyre in 2009, Serocs are a technical death metal band who won\u2019t let you head bang for more than a few minutes, simply because their discordant guitars, jarring drums and frantic, disfigured bass, refuse to relax into any sort of comfortable rhythm.<\/p>\n

The Next<\/em> is the second opus from Serocs, and is a rather disorientating experience that isn\u2019t necessarily too fancy, but just rarely constant, combining a modern death-grind dynamic with more old school combinations. The vocals of Jason Hohenstein (ex-Lecherous Nocturne) are extremely guttural, working their way between blazing, yet always jolting guitars and convulsing drums. <\/p>\n

At times, I\u2019m rather lost within the mess. Tracks such as \u2018The Variable\u2019, \u2018Urban Terror\u2019 and \u2018The Hellgramite Method\u2019 twist, turn and pummel, and yet for all their intentions to batter, I\u2019m left relatively unscarred by this eight-track composition. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying the talent on offer here, but I don\u2019t see this record appealing to anyone else except those with a penchant for modern death-grind. In all fairness though, this does lack the polished quality of some of the more recent releases which have left me completely cold. <\/p>\n

Serocs also, in spite of their aptitude, rarely resort to the more jazzy, showy episodes and at all times remain a brutal wall of sound that runs right from the opening title track to the closing \u2018Alienus Gignesthai\u2019 \u2013 one of the album\u2019s standout tracks with those barking vocals and staggering drum works.<\/p>\n

Even so, Serocs could be blamed for simply resorting to type. The Next<\/em> soon becomes another of those also-rans of blast-beat mayhem and shuddering intensity, and that\u2019s just not enough for me. For instance, \u2018The Shining One\u2019 and \u2018ChernoVile\u2019 do little to separate themselves from one another, meaning that the whole album seems to blur into one long, overtly technical explosion that remains bereft of any identity.<\/p>\n

Extreme metalheads among you may be inclined to feel that such a review is a tad harsh, but when I hear a track such as \u2018Weakness Fed The Fear\u2019 I\u2019m reminded as to why I take such a dislike to this sort of bland, hurtling metal. <\/p>\n

Sadly, however many times I play The Next<\/em> I tend to play up to its title by skipping literally to \u201cthe next\u201d track, and wait time and time again to be hooked on a particular section only to sink deeper into the waters of the formulaic. Serocs are trying to be different with their brand of aggression, but with Dying Fetus and so many other bands plying their trade with similar evolutionary chaos, Serocs just pass me by.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEROCSThe Next Comatose Music (2013)Rating: 5\/10 Originally formed as a one-man project by Mexican guitarist Antonio Freyre in 2009, Serocs are a technical death metal band who won\u2019t let you head bang for more than a few minutes, simply because their discordant guitars, jarring drums and frantic, disfigured bass, refuse to relax into any sort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,713],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-serocs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13871"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14566,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13871\/revisions\/14566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}