Artist: Sarea
Title: Rise of a Dying World
Type: Album
Label: self-released
“Insanity is cool” commented my daughter approvingly as we listened to “Rise of a Dying World”, the debut album by the Swedish band Sarea. She liked it, so that’s the early teenage market captured then. I, on the other hand, have difficulty with the structure. Although I called it insane, perhaps anarchic would be closer to the mark. There is a pleasing core to it in the form of a refreshing Power Metal riff, with all the other stuff superimposed on that.
It’s far from being all crash, bang, wallop. There are some good touches such as the acoustic section on “Volcanic Sun” and the last track “The Plague” which is a really solid song. Overall though I felt I was missing the point. There seemed to be some message pumping from the veins of the hoarse-voiced lead singer and through the energetic Prog-Power. The singer is unfortunately off key for the most part. Songs such as the opener “The Summoning” are naïve and bordering on pop in style. “Apocalyptiance” had no structure that I could recognise or identify with. The problem with all this Power freneticism was that I didn’t know what was coming next, but worse than that, I didn’t care. The album is a conceptual work about the self-destructiveness of humanity and I kind of worked that out but it wasn’t speaking to me as some albums can. It didn’t help that the vocals on tracks like “Souls on Departure” could be wrist-slashingly bad. This one had another cheesy chorus, which was a pity because the Power-Prog riff, whilst not original, was pleasing enough. “Skyline Fall” is bad Power Metal. There’s the odd guitar solo but it’s not enough. To be fair to Sarea, they don’t sound like anyone else with their particular brand of progressive Power Metal, but that’s not saying much. Things did pick up a little with “Mind Ignition”, which has a nice pace and a good build-up. “Script for Escapism” also starts well but then comes the return of the headache-inducing disparity between the prog and the strange combination of the growling-come-emo vocals. I found some encouragement at the end of this track in the form of some super Power showmanship. Maybe they should stick to this and cut out the emo prog. “Volcanian Sun” has a strong beginning, and nice acoustic work. The off-key emo vocals once again spoilt it for me, and again the choral structure was over simplistic for what had the potential to be a powerful track. “Extermination” was rampant Power Metal, but not a great song and punctuated by a ridiculous bit of growling. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, “Epoch Armageddon” is an exercise in cacophony. There is no structure to this track, some of whose lyrics make no sense either: “Why are we here, vain shall master society”. The final track “The Plague” breaks the mould. For once the track hangs together. The build-up is impressive. It is more traditional than what has gone before. The guitar chorus is memorable and re-worked to make an acceptable track, bordering indeed on the epic.
There is potential here, but Sarea’s quest for originality and progressive soul-searching doesn’t work. I found “Rise of a Dying World” an intensely frustrating album, one which lacks cohesion. Sometimes mixing up the elements can lead to impressive results, but not here.
http://www.sareamusic.com
Andrew Doherty
MTUK HOME
