| CD REVIEW Seneca |
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Band: Seneca Taking their name from a number of North American Indian tribes known as Seneca Nation, this Charlotte (North Carolina) based band formed in 2002, and soon found themselves established as one of the favourite unsigned bands in their area, playing shows up and down the East Coast on a regular schedule. Not content to just leave it at that, the band continuously sought to evolve technically, and when time came to record their self-titled debut album (released 2006 through Divisional Media Recordings), they wanted a well-known producer to lay down their unique brand of Metal-enhanced Hardcore justice. Their choice fell on Jamie King (known to have recorded with Beneath The Sky, Between The Buried And Me, and Glass Casket, among others), whom convinced selected members of Aria, Between the Buried And Me, Glass Casket, and Undying to do some guest vocal particiipations. The album was a success with music fans and media alike (Alternative Press claiming that Seneca was “…what Metal should be!”). Several line-up changes occured after the release of the debut album, but the band only saw their popularity grow even more! The band embarked on two full US tours, and with a line-up comprising lead singer Corey Spencer, guitarists Joe Miller & Ryan Noble, bassist Rico Marziali, and drummer Nathan Thomas, evolved even more by adding elements to their already rich aural assault…until they felt ready to again ally with Jamie King to record their sophomore album! The album opens with the instrumental “Optical”, which grows from atmospheric/ Ambient sounds to a catchy riff that seemlessly runs into first song “Palehorse”, which is a Death Metal scorcher with Black leanings (and the necessary blast beats to match the catchy mid-tempo riffage interspaced with up-tempo and somewhat Progressive note-fucking) to start with, and then surprisingly calms down for a cleaner vocal passage which again gradually grows in musical and vocal intensity (untill the clean vocals are again replaced by the Blackened Death growls)…to finish with a calm bit of piano! Talk about your bit of variety within one song! Regretfully, the two following songs have a similar build-up (in that they make use of cleaner vocals in the second half of the track). But starting track 5 the band changes it’s tactics, first bringing the throughout brutal “Birds” (which is not devoid of the necessary Hardcore-styled breakdowns), and then starting “Illusions” with a very serenely calm and semi-acoustic passage (matching clean, albeit Emo, vocals). After a whispered passage the songs burst open in all its magnificent brutality thaough! Both following songs (“The 29th Day” and “Creator”) show the band at their most brutal, while “Your Heart In My Hands” doés have a couple of calmer passages, first with an additional screamed backing vocal on top of the growls, then a spoken bit halfway, before returning to more brutal approaches again. That the band is capable of holding to a tenderizing moment for more than half a minute, is proven by the acoustic (only guitar and piano here) album closing instrumental title track and ballad on the album, which follows the short but throughout brutal “Names And Faces”. With the band using the several elements in their music, a reasonable question would be whether Seneca are still looking for their own direction, or have already found it. A next album will probably be conclusive! Meanwhile, check out what’s available at myspace.com/senecaband (I’m not sure what’s on there now, since the content of the player occasionally changes, but when I looked last it was still 5 tracks off the current album). If you like what you hear, you might consider ordering the limited edition of the album…which is to include a re-mixed, re-mastered version (by Jamie King himself) of the band’s 2006 debut album! 88/100 Tony. |