Concrete Web (Belgium) - 95 /100
Just before leaving for a Spanish vacation with the family, I was given this very nice (and extremely lengthy) CD by this Taiwanese quintet, who are up to their 3rd longplayer in just as many years (2002's "The Soul That Never Dies" & last year's "The Equal Spirit" preceding).

With mixing for this having been done at the infamous Swedish Studio Fredman, and post-production at Finland's Finnvox, you may already get an indication to Seraphim's music being an Nicely Heavy Metal-based Power Metal. Neo-Classically influenced in the guitars (and Kessier Hsu & Lucas Huang master their instruments like a charm tandem) at several moments, that feeling is hightened by frequently used keyboards (clavichord in the case of the tracks "In The Air" & "Instantaneous", the last -with a length of 9'37"- also being the longest track on the album), and of course by female vocalist Pay Lee's operatic vocal style (when compared to Nightwish, she may come over as a bit pale, but she still is quite a good soprano singer).

She's helped out on vocals rather frequently by bassist Jax Yeh, either through backing, shared, or partial lead vocals. His style is either a more Black screamed and even (oriental) Thrash flavoured one, or 'normal' for calmer moments (taking in mind that his voice has a typical Oriental roughness, like we're used from Japanese vocalists as well).

For somewhat more sedate moments, look up the album opening "Intro" (just acoustic guitars), the instrumental "Aone" (actually an Heavy Metal instrumental, but with a great sensibility), the ballad "Is That?" (just acoustic guitar, moody keyboards, and Pay's delectable voice, for once not too operatic, and with herself in backing vocals), or "The End" (acoustic instrumental, with some humming noises by Pay).

For more up-tempo stuff, check out any of the other 10 tracks on this just over 77 minutes affair! If indeed Seraphim are meant to be the band representative to bring Taiwan Heavy Metal toward an international recognition, they're on good track!


Tony