Artist: Serpere
Country: Austria
Label: Into Endless Chaos Records
Formats: Cassette EP
Year: 2025
Somehow Serpere slipped under my radar. A shame, because the involvement of the members in amongst others Kringa, Hagzissa and Weathered Crest certainly would have drawn my interest. And not in the least because Serpere has focussed their musical energy on a genre close to my heart: Nidrosian Black Metal.
On the band’s previous EP ‘The Invoker’ the band made it no secret that they adore the bands that comprise the Nidrosian Black Metal movement of the 2000s. Although perhaps references to Kaosritual were not nearly as obvious, the music on that EP was very clearly full of inspiration from One Tail, One Head, Celestial Bloodshed and Mare. On the latest EP ‘Exsequiae’, released in April 2025, those influences still stand tall as the pillars of Serpere. It has a similar untamed aggression of the ‘One Tail, One Head’ and ‘Tandava’ EPs, and while perhaps it doesn’t capture as much of the spellbinding brilliance of ‘Ebony Tower’, it certainly bears the looming darkness that defined Mare’s ‘Spheres Like Death’ and the works of Celestial Bloodshed. Compared to ‘The Invoker’ the sound on this latest EP is a little bit more forceful, and clean chanting vocals play a larger part, drawing ‘Exsequiae’ a little closer to the earliest works of Kringa than its predecessor.
After a threatening piano intro sets the tone, ‘Death Gates Unchained’ starts off wildly with bellowed vocals in the vein of Wraath. The song slithers, to more groove-laden parts into more gnarly territory, sounding like a blend of Celestial Bloodshed and One Tail, One Head. In the subsequent ‘Rites of Darkness’ there is a more ritual sense of Mare added, while the clean shouting to me clearly recalls the sound of Kringa. ‘The Beyond’ is initially a slower, gnarlier and more skincrawling track with sinister strumming and possessed howling until it takes a more choppy twist. The closing track ‘The Chant of Lucifer’ is full of tension, in the wild vocal combinations, the creative drums, the ferocious pace and the unsettling riffs. And I think that is where Serpere excels in: The marriage of twisted riffs, unchained aggression and an ominous atmosphere with wildly varied vocals. The seamless blending of the sound of Mare, One Tail, One Head, Celestial Bloodshed and Kringa is damn impressive, and needless to say, ‘Exsequiae’ is a release you want to have heard if you are enthralled by the Nidrosian Black Metal scene.
