Serious Black – Rise of Akhenaton

Serious Black
Rise of Akhenaton
Label: AFM Records
Out: September 27^th, 2024
Playing time: 44:01

Ten years SERIOUS BLACK, ten years of Melodic Power Metal, with the license to create anthems.

So enthuses the label’s press release. I have already been able to see this for myself live. Although the headlining show in Hamburg was a while ago. I was also impressed by the penultimate album ‘Suite 226’ (2020). The follow-up ‘Vengeance Is Mine’ (2022) somehow passed me by. But in the anniversary year, the band’s sixth album ‘Rise of Akhenaton’ will be released, which will be presented to the fans on a European tour with Sonata Arctica and Firewind in September and October. Six albums? The Encyclopaedia Metallum and the band’s own website list seven. But ‘First Light’ is an album with acoustic versions of earlier songs.

The opening song ‘Open Your Eyes’ starts with a short introduction. But then the label’s assessment comes true. Serious Black play Melodic Power Metal. A first hit-worthy song. That doesn’t change with ‘We Are The Storm’. The fans can quickly sing along live, and not just the refrains. A video clip was released for ‘Silent Angel’. Here you can see (and hear) the interplay between the two guitarists. Light industrial sounds introduce ‘Take Your Life’, but only very briefly. A great anthem in the mid-tempo range. With ‘Shields Of Glory’, the next anthem follows hot on its heels. But Serious Black can also be calm and contemplative, as the power ballad ‘When I m Gone’ proves. It continues anthemically with ‘United’. The title track ‘Rise Of Akhenaton’ deviates a little from what we have heard so far. Here you can hear fast Power Metal. But the melody and the polyphonic choruses dominate here too. With ‘Virtual Reality’, ‘I Will Remember’ and ‘Metalised’, three more hit-worthy anthems round off the album.

With ‘Rise Of Akhenaton’, Serious Black are going back to their roots. The bandmates around Mario Lochert present themselves as the spearhead of Melodic Power Metal. The (renewed) arrival of Greek multi-instrumentalist Bob Katsionis proves to be a stroke of luck. Although not explicitly credited, he could also have played the various keyboard passages, which fit perfectly into the overall sound. And singer Nikola Mijic is a worthy successor to Urban Breed, who was on the microphone from 2014 to 2021.

Serious Black – Silent Angel: https://youtu.be/kJTMQT9b3XA?si=Log7GqLaw8RbtO8q

Lineup:

Nikola Mijic – Vocals
Dominik Sebastian – Guitar
Bob Katsionis – Guitar
Mario Lochert – Bass
Rami Ali – Drums

Track list:

• Open Your Eyes
• We Are the Storm
• Silent Angel
• Take Your Life
• Shields of Glory
• When I´m Gone
• United
• Rise of Akhenaton
• Virtual Reality
• I Will Remember
• Metalized