Originating from country of Maldives, Serenity Dies issues their second actual release, entitled Hacksawcracy. This release is categorized simply as an EP, even though it's just one track short of their 2006 debut full-length Murder, which wound up being another self issued release. Either way, this album finds the band continuing to write rather long Thrash songs that seem to take plenty from more of today's Thrash acts that focus on technical music and Groove-oriented moments then anything. But, for as good a job as this studio effort does, it's probably much better an experience live.
Sadly, Hacksawcracy really isn't that great an album. By listening to it, you can tell the band is very talented but seems to be missing some real energy behind their music on this recording, leaving the music to sound rather bland. More then likely, some of these songs, with exception to the slower "Blood Serenade", are far more enjoyable on the stage. "Bullet Rain" is a very catchy song that uses some overly simple guitar chords and drumming through most of the songs, and doesn't really pick up that much from start to end. Now, if you were to see the band perform this track live, perhaps it would be a different story, but for as catchy as the simple chords are, this song lacks any real adrenaline outside the guitar solo near the end that sounds so out of place thanks to the music picking up so suddenly against music that is just far slower then what is being played just to accompany the solo, leading to a very forgettable song in the end.
The recording itself is of a great quality and thanks to the music, you sometimes can also have a haunting atmosphere to the music, like with the track "Blood Serenade". The problem with the music is that sometimes it feels like it's missing it's edge. While the music is clearly taking from a more Groove aspect, the riffs sometimes feel weak, like in "Dystopian Law" which seems to go for a more melodic approach to the music with rather simple chords that drip with modern Groove influence and audio samples here and there for good measure. Aside that, one thing that Thrash fans may notice is that sometimes the music seems to mesh between hints of Metallica, especially with "Blood Serenade", with today's more Groove oriented Annihilator sound from Metal, with the song "Psycho Ride" really acting as proof of that thanks to the somewhat simple Thrash tinged Groove riffs, a catchy chorus, and vocals that sound like the latter aforementioned band. Whether this is intentional or not is unclear, but it really leaves the listener wanting more.
It's sad to say, but Hacksawcracy basically follows the same slow paced performance that appears on "Bullet Reign" for pretty much every song until "Dystopian Law", which is the only really enjoyable track on this release. Serentiy Dies does have some talent, which does show up on this release here and there, but for the majority of the album it's composed of simply riffs that come at you in a slower pace then anything with nothing too new in the mix, simply feeding off bland ideas that are put together nicely to create a CD you'll listen to a few times before retiring it to collect dust. Hopefully for their next release, Serenity Dies will at least pick up the speed for more then one song to give some kind of bite to the rather so-simple-it's-dull music this release showcases.
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