{"id":47622,"date":"2015-01-01T08:51:35","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T13:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=47622"},"modified":"2015-01-01T08:51:35","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T13:51:35","slug":"serious-black-as-daylight-breaks-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/serious-black-as-daylight-breaks-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Serious Black | As Daylight Breaks<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SeriousThe new year is upon us, and we already have a contender for our \u201ctop ten of 2015\u201d list wih As Daylight Breaks<\/em>, the debut album from Serious Black. This is a new band \u2013 not just a one-off project \u2013 from some very familiar names in the melodic\/power\/progressive metal scenes. Serious Black features guitarist Roland Grapow (Masterplan, ex-Helloween), drummer Thomen Stauch (Savage Circus, ex-Blind Guardian), bassist Mario Lochert (Emergency Gate, ex-Visions of Atlantis), guitarist Dominik Sebastian (Edenbridge), keyboardist Jan Vacik (ex-Dreamscape) and vocalist Urban Breed (Trail of Murder, ex-Tad Morose, ex-Bloodbound).<\/p>\n

The collaboration between Grapow \u2013 one of the best songwriters in melodic metal \u2013 and Breed \u2013 one of the best vocalists in melodic metal \u2013 alone should be enough to get most fans’ attention, but Serious Black is more than just these two individuals, and As Daylight Breaks<\/em> doesn’t simply sound like a Masterplan album with a different vocalist. The songwriting was collaborative, so you can hear elements of each member’s past bands on this album. Overall, the band found a perfect meeting point between power metal and melodic metal with this album.<\/p>\n

As Daylight Breaks<\/em> is just a fantastic melodic metal album all around. Stauch and Lochert keep things fast and heavy, but between Grapow’s melodic lead guitar work and Breed’s powerful soaring vocals this album is all about huge melodies. Breed has been something of a journeyman of late, but he fits so very well here. So much so that it feels like Serious Black is where he truly belongs. Having Grapow \u2013 a very capable singer in his own right – on backing vocals doesn’t hurt either.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to call out specific songs when the whole album is this good, but if you’re looking for an idea of Serious Black’s overall sound, you’ll want to sample leadoff single \u201cI Seek No Other Life,\u201d the very Tad Morose-sounding \u201cAkhenaton,\u201d and the powerful \u201cSetting Fire to the Earth.\u201d Aside perhaps from the brief instrumental \u201cTemple of the Sun,\u201d you won’t find a forgettable song on As Daylight Breaks<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If you’re a fan of melodic and power metal, particularly bands like Masterplan, Avantasia, Tad Morose, Allen-Lande and Stratovarius, As Daylight Breaks<\/em> is your first \u201cmust-have\u201d album of 2015. This is melodic metal magic, and with any luck this will be the first of many albums from Serious Black.<\/p>\n

Edition Notes: The limited edition CD release of As Daylight Breaks<\/em> comes in a digipack and features three bonus tracks.<\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal, Melodic Metal, Power Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nUrban Breed (v)
\nRoland Grapow (g)
\nDominik Sebastian (g)
\nMario Lochert (b)
\nJan Vacik (k)
\nThomen Stauch (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tI Seek No Other Life
\n2.\tHigh and Low
\n3.\tSealing My Fate
\n4.\tTemple of the Sun
\n5.\tAkhenaton
\n6.\tMy Mystic Mind
\n7.\tTrail of Murder
\n8.\tAs Daylight Breaks
\n9.\tSetting Fire to the Earth
\n10.\tListen to the Storm
\n11.\tOlder and Wiser<\/p>\n

Label: AFM Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.serious-black.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — The new year is upon us, and we already have a contender for our \u201ctop ten of 2015\u201d list wih As Daylight Breaks, the debut album from […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":47623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12394],"tags":[8645,10473,2317,10476,10477,10475,2491,1051,3439,1097,1278,10474,10472,10479,10478],"class_list":{"0":"post-47622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2015","8":"tag-afm-records","9":"tag-as-daylight-breaks","10":"tag-cd-review","11":"tag-dominik-sebastian","12":"tag-edenbridge","13":"tag-emergency-gate","14":"tag-heavy-metal","15":"tag-masterplan","16":"tag-melodic-metal","17":"tag-power-metal","18":"tag-roland-grapow","19":"tag-savage-circus","20":"tag-serious-black","21":"tag-trail-of-murder","22":"tag-urban-breed"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}