Album Review: Nemesis AD by Serenity (Napalm Records)

Symphonic metal powerhouse Serenity are back with a bombastic new studio album titled Nemesis AD due for release on the 3rd of November via Napalm Records.

Symphonic metal powerhouse Serenity unleash their new studio album, Nemesis AD! The successor to their previous full length, The Last Knight which came out in 2020. Nemesis AD is the first record with Marco Pastorino (Temperance) as additional guitarist and backing vocalist. Known for their thematic albums inspired by historic characters and stories of the past, on Nemesis AD, Serenity draw inspiration from the life and highly influential art of painter Albrecht Dürer of the German renaissance.

The Austrian powerhouse have been working hard and delivering fantastic releases for over twenty years now. They have conceptually covered the life and times of so many famous historical figures both from history and myth. The likes of Leonardo Da Vinci, Napoleon Bonaparte, The Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian I through to tales around Arthur Pendragon and Camelot and so much more. Across all of the tales, across all of the decades, Serenity have consistently delivered huge sounds with plenty of riffing, blazing guitars and emotionally charged orchestral arrangements in music that is predominantly melody driven.

Serenity are Georg Neuhauser on lead vocals, Christian Hermsdörfer on guitars & backing vocals, Marco Pastorino on guitars & backing vocals, Fabio D’Amore on bass & backing vocals and Andreas Schipflinger on drums & backing vocals.

Typical of the style really but Nemesis AD gets underway with a beautiful choir based intro track titled Memoriae Alberti Dureri. It sets the scene for the album, gets you in the right mindframe before sending us on our journey with 10 more tracks. What follows across Nemesis AD is a glorious showcase of all that is good and great within symphonic power metal. It takes very few seconds of The Fall of Man to find yourself wholly on board as the melody blazes out, drums and bass hammer away and orchestras back the core instruments wonderfully. Georg Neuhauser’s very recognisable vocals sound great and charged with additional vocals courtesy of the impressive Roy Khan (Conception, ex-Kamelot) adding a lot too.

You can’t not be mesmerised by those guitar melodies, something that is a common feature across the album. All of the tracks, no matter the pace and tempo, allow themselves to be driven by the guitar melody and the melodic vocals. The pacier ones, like The Fall of Man or Reflections (of AD) and Nemesis have huge guitar lines driving large parts of the songs, filling you with that fist throwing energy and just raising your spirits. Sun of Justice, and Nemesis again, have some pretty meaty riffing going on too to get those heads moving. The End of Babylon has a dark and heavy vibe to it, delivered massively in part due to the intelligent use of operatic choirs combining in the intro before dropping into a slower, chunky verse. It’s a banger with some amazing vocal harmonies in play and a glorious chorus.

Speaking of choruses, Serenity excel at choruses. The End of Babylon, The Fall of Man, Soldiers Under the Cross, Ritter, Tod und Teufel (Knightfall) and Crowned by an Angel are just some of the stand out choruses across this massive album. The type of choruses that just fit their song perfectly, transitioning from a verse or prechorus into something that just grabs you and hypnotises you. Add in other factors like huge and imporessive solos with my favourites being the solos on Soldiers Under the Cross and on Nemesis. Do you notice how many times Nemesis comes up? That song is so good.

The orchestral usage across Nemesis AD is also really impressive and another tool that Serenity have really mastered. The use is intelligent, adding huge choirs to achieve more bombastic sounds in choruses, or just gentle violins or wind instruments to allow intros and verses to build nicely. There isn’t a song across Nemesis AD that doesn’t use them well, but they are always used in a way that the core instruments like drums and guitars still shine and lead. Except of course for the gorgeous closing/bonus track on the album where Serenity treat us to a full orchestral version of The Fall of Man.

All of these components come together nicely to create an exciting album but also exciting songs as in most songs, the band utilise every element at their disposal with multiple transitions between orchestras, heavier riffing, big choruses then into solos, heavier sections, melodic slow downs – check out the mammoth 8 minute plus Reflections (of AD) to really see a song with a lot of transitions.  But, it all works, such is the skill level of Serenity and their ability to craft albums that keep a singular identity but with each track still being memorable and recognisable.

Across Nemesis AD there are songs that sit in the heavier, guitar and drums driven side like Nemesis but also songs that are closer to a ballad style, like Soldiers Under the Cross, then tracks that are a bit of everything like The Sky is Our Limit. While I guess that might all sound a little stereotypical of the style but it doesn’t feel like that, instead feeling more like each song was necessary for the story being told. The album flows and is clearly a singular tale yet each chapter of this story required a slightly different method of delivery. That makes for a very powerful, often emotional, fresh and exciting listen – everything I have come to expect from this talented group.

I guess it should come as no real surprise that I, being a fan of power and symphonic metal, have really enjoyed Nemesis AD. It is a great album from a band I have really come to admire over the years. Serenity really are one of the most talented and capable bands we have in this genre. They are wonderful song writers and really capture the magic and emtoion of each tale, each concept they delve in to. I’m a big fan of Georg Neuhauser’s voice as well which obviously helps but mostly, I just always come out of a Serenity listening feeling emotional, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but I always feel something. Nemesis AD, in a way, is just exactly what I have come to expect from Serenity – a high quality, wonderfully produced and written album full of emotion and energy. This is worth your time.

Preorder a copy of Nemesis AD by Serenity from the link tree here.

Serenity Links

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