Holy Serpent - ENDLESS (Album Review)

Release date: October 18th 2019. Label: RidingEasy Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Endless – Tracklisting

1.Lord Deceptor 06:47

2.Into the Fire

3.Daughter of the Light

4.Hourglass 05:26

5.For No One 07:44

6.Marijuana Trench

Members

Scott Penberthy - Guitar/Vocals

Nick Donoughue - Guitar

Dave Bartlett - Bass

Lance Leembrugen - Drums

Review

Endless is the 3^rd album from Australian Heavy Psych Rockers Holy Serpent and sees the band continue their partnership with RidingEasy Records. This album continues where their 2016 effort TEMPLES left off but with more emphasis on progression and storytelling. The album has a more Doom orientated sound perhaps influenced by Uncle Acid in places.

However the Stoner Rock grooves allow Holy Serpent to create a richer and heavier style of music. The album opens with the excellent sounding – Lord Deceptor – which captures the seedy 70s Doom Rock environment surprisingly well with elements of Occult Rock spliced with epic amounts of Fuzz Rock. The vocals are rooted in 70s Hard Rock and offer the band a more vintage feel compared to their previous albums.

Second song – Into The Fire – opens with a more powerful Sludge Rock sound and it’s a welcome change with the band becoming that little bit more dangerous and edgier as well. The riffs are plentiful and powerful with Holy Serpent biding their time in playing their trademark Psychedelic Stoner Rock vibes. The song is more progressive than you initially would expect and allows Holy Serpent to experiment with their music. The vocals feel distant in places but have an emotional core to them that I didn’t expect. The lyrics are superb and give this song and perhaps bring the album truly to life.

Third song – Daughter Of The Light – is perhaps the gloomiest and doom based offering on the album as the whole environment becomes bleaker as a result. The dark vocals have a sinister to feel to them but it’s the music that impresses the most. As Holy Serpent bring a more subtle feeling to their hybrid Psych/Fuzz/Stoner/Doom Rock sound. One of the standout songs on the album.

Fourth song – Hourglass – is a love letter to the classic 70s Doom Rock/Metal scene as Holy Serpent play some epic Black Sabbath riffs on the album and leave you with wanting more with moments of modern sounding Fuzz Rock grooves being added for dark and twisted measure.

The remaining 2 songs – For No One and Marijuana Trench – have a more Stoner Rock approach with the Heavy Psychedelic sound still being the main driving force for Holy Serpent to build their music from. Marijuana Trench is the best song on the album and it’s a great song to end the album with.

Endless is a fantastic sounding album and everything sounds perfectly creepy from start to finish. This is perhaps Holy Serpent’s best sounding and most mature album to date. If you’re new to the world of Holy Serpent then this album is the best place to start. If you’re a long time fan of the band then you’re going to love it like I did.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Dave at US/THEM PR for the promo. Endless will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via RidingEasy Records from October 18^th 2019.

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp

Holy Serpent - Temples (Album Review)

Release date: 30th September 2016. Label: RidingEasy Records . Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Temples – Tracklisting

1.Purification By Fire

2.Bury Me Standing

3.Toward The Sands

4.The Black Stone

5.Sativan Harvest

Band Members:

Scott Penberthy - Guitar/Vocals

Nick Donoughue - Guitar

Dave Bartlett - Bass

Lance Leembrugen - Drums

Review:

Here we go, with another fabulous review! Let me open with the same words I used after the first seconds of listening. Holy shit! Holy Serpent! Holy Serpent’s latest album is something absolutely amazing and insane. In this latest release, Temples (RidingEasy Records), the Melbourne based quartet completely expand their sonic journey through a much more heavier and massive sound compared with their self-titled debut album (Holy Serpent).

Here, the tunes are atmospheric and heavy, and the slow grooving passages perfectly mix with the vocals of Scott Penberthy that, in some passages closely remind one of the finest voices of the grunge scene of the 90's, Layne Staley. What I found really interesting in this album, is the perfectly mix of doom, stoner and grunge, where (slowed) Black Sabbath fuses with Alice in Chains, Fu Manchu and Acid King. All without disdaining more psychedelic passages, as in the best tradition of the 60/70’s.

The album opens with Purification By Fire, where slow-burn riffs, rhythmic and massive patterns of bass and drum slowly accompany the listener into dark and heavy atmosphere, where the vocals really remind to the best Layne Staley. This long opener ends with a riffage close to Acid King. One of my favourite tracks. It follows Bury Me Standing, a song which starts with a powerful wha-guitar-solo and then suddenly change tempo, perfectly declining the doom concept of Saint Vitus around the howls of Penberthy.

In Toward the Sands, Holy Serpent expand their sonic experimentation, as the song constantly turns on a dime from fast rager to doom, and where we can hear in some passages the echo of Monolord’s Cursing The One (from their amazing album Vaenir, RidingEasy Record). The same groove can be found in the next The Black Stone, possibly the song with one of the heaviest, slow and obsessive rhythmic of the whole album. And, mind you, is not a note of disappointment, indeed. Simply amazing.

Temples closes with a 12 minutes long journey through Holy Serpent, Sativan Harvest, a three-pieces song which is built around an epic stoner/doom riffage that drifts into haze of droning guitars. Here the tunes are, if possible, even more fat, slow and dark. Around the sixth minute, the psychedelic change in pure Pink Floyd style gently introduce a massive dose of heavy and elephantine riffs, where the vocals become, if possible, even more intensive and profound. The third part of Sativan Harvest accompanies the listener towards the end of Temples, where guitars, bass and drum give way to synths, strings and cellos, in an ending that leaves you speechless, where the dark atmospheres of the whole album are replaced by a deep sense of calm, where doom meets Björk. The perfect ending to a great album.

What else can I say...Holy Shit! Holy Serpent!

Words by Bruno Bellisario

Thanks to Dave at US/THEM Group for the promo. Temples will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via RidingEasy Records from September 30^th 2016.

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp