Markradonn

The Serpentine Deception

Haniel: Guitar, Vox:
Tim: Drums:
Dennis: 6-string Bass, Didgeridoo, Djembe, Guitar:
Allen: Rhythm Guitar:
Jon: Timpani, Percussion:
Robin: Tuba:
Drew: Cimbasso, Tuba:
Danny: Tuba/ Euphonium
Rich: Lead Trombone

1. Initiation Through Torment

The first forty two seconds of this song is a sound clip that puts you in a frame of mind that you are probably going to hear something you have never heard before. That is apparent when the music begins you hear drums and then trombones playing. Some grizzly vocals join in and the drums are blasting away. This is such an interesting concept, unlike anything I have heard.

2. GISH.ZI.DA: God of the Tree of Life

This song begins with someone playing on at least three timpani’s for a solid minute and then the rest of the brass band join in. The vocals are a very low guttural and grizzly style that actually are pretty good,   it’s odd to try and focus on metal vocals as they are layered slightly over a brass band. It’s an odd moment when you are not only listening to metal, but also a brass band, and while the two don’t typically share the spotlight this is not bad considering.

3. The Serpentine Deception

This whole song is mostly hand drums and what sounds like a digeridoo, it gives the E.P. a tribal vibe if only for one song.

4. The veil of Negative Existence Part 1: Ain Nothingness

This song starts out with some energy behind it for sure. You can’t help but notice that you could honestly hear this coming from a typical metal band without a brass section. This song is like listening to Chicago and death metal at the same time. For me I grew up playing in every school band there was, I am very familiar with what a brass section sounds like. This cannot be an easy task it’s one thing to play classical music, or jazz, this is metal and they do a pretty damn good job.

5. Stillness, Silence of the Primal Mind

This begins just like the title suggests, stillness and silence until about fifteen seconds in we hear guitar and cymbals. This is a very mellow track compared to the previous songs on the E.P. It’s almost like an instrumental outro track to round the E.P. out with something a bit more melodic and simple.

This is a very difficult release to rate for a few reasons, first it is an E.P. So there are not many songs to listen to and analyze, second this is a genre all on its own. No one else (that I have heard) is a death metal brass band, with that said I can say this. The Serpentine Deception may not be for everyone, however I implore everyone who reads this to give it a listen. The sound quality of the recording you can tell is not the same that you would expect from some of the bigger name bands but then think about this. Many of those bands have between 4 to 6 members so recording can be so much quicker, with markradonn we are talking about a dozen members give or take and   some of those members are not playing just one instrument we are talking more like eighteen different instruments. Now you tell me that you can track all that, fast and without spending a ton of dough. These guys did it, and they did a damn good job in my opinion. I believe that in the near future we may see more bands doing this type of music, you hear a brass section in many genres of music. Now it has spilled into metal, and as far as this E.P. goes I will have to say it is going to be around a 6/10. I think if they had more songs, or had a better sound quality on the recording it could be more like a 7 or 8/10 but for this E.P. Sometimes a 6/10 isn’t bad, it’s just the beginning. A band like this is only going to raise the bar, and make and changes necessary as they continue to play. I am without a doubt going to keep my ears open for Markradonn to see what their following releases are going to be like.

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