Customer Reviews

Serpentine

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fourth album of Gothic rockers Flowing Tears from Germany. Compared to their previous work, the album Serpentine contains more Metal influences. The songs are groovier and a little bit faster and less dreamy. It makes the album more divers. Compared to other Metal bands with female vocals, Stephanie Duchene has got a very unique voice. Her voice is strong, deep and melancholic. The songs are short but catchy. The guitars are groovy and the keyboards complete the songs. I highly recommend listening to Serpentine on a autumn night with headphones. If you like melancholic Rock/Metal with suitable female vocals, then check out Serpentine.

Serpentine is a prime example that simple, well written songs, coupled with a capable vocalist go a long way. This young German band go for a more straight forward "rocking" approach on Serpentine, abandoning the doomy landscapes of their previous "Jade" album. Naturally singer Stephanie Duchene steals the show with her strong, distinct voice and a great ability to sell melody and emotion. Musicaly this album borrowes a familiar formula - Heavy Guitars, drumming and light keyboards and its style resembles The Gathering (Nighttime Birds), Left Hand Solution, Pale Forest and maybe some Katatonia - so fans of those bands should take notice. The mood of the album is melancholy without succumbing to typical gothic melodrama or cliches.

A fine release, this is the Flowing Tears album to hear first. If you like this one then check their previous masterwork "Jade"

My fave tracks: Starfish ride, Serpentine, Justine, Merlin, Carnage people.

This album was my first contact with German's Flowing Tears, even though they have released three other albums. I must admit, I wasn't too thrilled with this after my first listen. After all, Flowing Tears is very much a surprise as this four-piece (formally a six-piece) plays a relatively generic, commonplace style of heavy gothic music yet still somehow comes across as very enjoyable and worth the time spent after a few spins. I think what ultimately captivated me and propelled me to listen to this over and over was frontwoman Stefanie Duchene, whose expressive and exotic alto voice sounds so different then the usual soprano (comparing closely with Mariana Holmberg of Left Hand Solution). She's yet another shining gem in this genre competing with the likes of Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil and Anneke van Giersbergen of The Gathering (whom Flowing Tears has toured with, along with My Dying Bride). The music is a slow paced affair that doesn't quite hit doom moods, but is most certainly somber and brooding. There are ample passages of heavy guitar playing at moderate tempos with the occasional underlying synth waves and quiet passages. While you will not find anything ground breaking or innovative, you will find some very rock solid and stable tracks that provide their backbone. After multiple listens tracks like "The Marching Sane" and "The Carnage People" will grow on you with their infectious hooks, tight arrangements, and catchy melodies. To help matters even more, the rich and luscious production gives "Serpentine" an added atmospheric dimension. Though overall this isn't going to break down new barriers or redefine this so-called "darkwave" genre, I'd welcome bands of this high quality any day.

Europe is where it's all happening these days -- and Flowing Tears are a good example of that.

In the vein of such female-fronted bands as Lacuna Coil, Nightwish and Theatre of Tragedy, F.T. vocalist Stephanie Duchene melds her powerful, and sometimes strange, vocal style to the bands heavy rock/goth style like a marriage made in heaven. The music is hard, complex, sometimes dramatic and easily accessible.

Some of my favorite tracks: Serpentine, Marching Sane, Portsall (a very moody and creepy ballad-type song), and Cupid of the Carrion Kind.

However the band stumbles on such tunes as Children of the Sun (I found this whole track to be quite annoying and skip over it whenever I play this CD), and Merlin (F.T. seem to be heading into Nighwish terriorty with this one -- and while I love Nightwish, Merlin just does not fit with Flowing Tears' style.)

Overall though, Serpentine is a good introduction to Flowing Tears for anyone who likes good strong vocal work (male or female) and intricate, competent muscianship. Again, this album will give you a good idea of what is going on in the European metal/rock/goth scene.

If you are a fan of good hard rock/metal or goth, then Serpentine should appeal to you.

I agree with the above reviewer.. Uninformed Americans are really missing out on the Euro movement these days. There are so many excellent bands out there that go virtually unnoticed in the commercial circuits in the USA. But who cares about commercialism?! We don't want these sacred bands to be ruined by MTV and greedy record companies.. we want them to release honest and excellently crafted music!

Ahem, well as for the review.. This is an excellent disc; a must-have for anyone that enjoys bands such as The Gathering, Tristania, and Lacuna Coil. Without trying to compare FT to another band, the makeup is closest to Lacuna Coil, with clean, wonderful and ethereal female vocals. There are no male grunts here, just pure emotional, feminine vocals from Stephane. The sound is heavy and deep, with just the right amount of keys for that backdrop of ambient waves. I like the production on the album, too.. it's full and flavorful, not flat and unexciting. The arrangments of chorus and verse flow together beautifully and are not boring or drawn out. The concepts are slightly gloomy and cryptic, just the way they should be!

I highly recommend this disc for lovers of the bands mentioned. It's a perfect fit for anyone's collection in the genre.

The latest from Germany's FLOWING TEARS is simply one of the best new albums I've heard in months - can't stop listening to the damn thing! While a harder, more metallic offering than their last album "Jade", it is nevertheless an album that drops all "gothic" cliches in favor of simple emotion and depth. The songs still have a sense of the prequisite gothic sadness, due in no small part to the deep and haunting voice of singer Stephanie Duchene, but the songs flow and ebb between crunching guitar and airy keyboard/acoustic passages that simply add a dynamic sorely lacking in so much similar music. I only wish more people here in the States could hear what bands like Flowing Tears, Tiamat and Paradise Lost are doing. They'd be shocked to know what they've been missing - and maybe re-think their opinions that Linkin Park, Creed and Blink 182 is good hard rock!

German act Flowing Tears tried this time a heavier approach to the gothic feel of their music. Stefanie's beautiful voice is a bit more low tone, and guitars are also a bit more distorted.
I think FT have the talent, but they must make the next step to becoming a great gothic band.
Anyway, 'Serpentine' will pleased gothic rock/metal fans who doesn't expect a masterpiece in every album or band they listen.
Three stars.

I am of the opinion that Flowing Tears put out one of the best albums in the last five years with Jade. I eagerly awaited this follow up. When I heard it though I could not help but be disappointed. It starts out o.k. but never really seems to build any momentum or go anywhere. Where Jade was consistently interesting Serpentine is downright boring. I guess all the fresh ideas have just ran out. I also thought lyrics were a strong point on Jade and an exceptionally weak point on Serpentine. Starfish Ride along with others are just plain horrendous. I will buy their next album but with far lower hopes.

Flowing Tears' previous album Jade was a compelling album full of somber melodies highlighted by Stefanie Duchene's plaintive vocals. While not exactly goth or doom metal, it was still a welcome departure from the usual run of female-fronted rock bands. Serpentine, however, leans more toward the generic and is not as memorable; few of the songs stick in the mind as the ones on Jade. There is not much to say about it except that it is too ordinary. Let's hope their next effort puts them back on track.