Serianna – “Define Me”

Define Me is my first encounter with Serianna. The first thought that raced through my mind was, “What the scheiss does Serianna mean?” It made me think of a variant of the Michael Jackson lyrics, “Hey, Annie, are you Seri?” I digress. The album seems to have two halves. I like the second half more. Why is that, Henry? Shut up, and I’ll tell you.

There are so many vocal tones on this album that, at first, I thought there had to be at least two vocalists, or a guitarist/bassist/drummer doubling as a singer. There’s the low/mid/high range screams, yelly singing, and clean singing, the tone of each sounding like a different person. This had me perplexed for an entire 6 hour drive before I was able to Google some information on the band. Yeah, it’s one guy. Props, Chris.

So, the first half, to me, is much darker. The entire album is heavy, but something about the tonality and movement in the first several tracks convey severe abandonment. Honestly, great breakup music. As messed up as this sounds, I’d go out my way to find myself in a breakup situation just to have the perfect soundtrack. You then have an instrumental track, “Outlander,” that bridges you to the second half. It’s an ambient atmosphere that builds into an epic grind.

The second half is characterized by some quicker rhythms and that yelly singing that I mentioned earlier. I usually don’t listen to lyrics that much, but subconsciously, I got the sense that they are more uplifting. The singing parts also seem to go a little higher, which is ambrosia to my hear hole.

Outstanding musicianship all round and some spicy production. Favorite moment is the intro to “Define Yourself.” Vocals fade in with some reverse delay action leading into a gang sort of chant, “We don’t need anyone to show us who we are” to a catchy as ballz melody. I can see these guys sneaking onto everyone’s radar with this album.

Tracking Listing:

01. Like Glass
02. Shadowcast
03. Analog
04. Full Circle
05. Drifter
06. Snake Oil Salesman
07. The Fallout
08. Pariah
09. Outlander
10. Burial Ground
11. Exist to Outlive
12. Define Yourself
13. Remove / Rebuild

Run Time: 44:18
Release Date: August 13, 2013

Check out the song “Exist To Outlive”