Paul Rowland - Serpentine Soliloquy

Hear The Track Here

Last track out of the bag this month is a new name to me and is (and I quote) ' a heady mix of metal with goth undertones combined into a powerful song about the oral arts' OoooK. Paul is a heavy metal goth type from Memphis TN so slap on some black lipstick and eye shadow and let's go explore the netherworld. I can't say that my definition of the word 'heady' and Pauls are going to coexist very well but there is certainly an atmosphere to Serpentine Soliloquy that keeps up the interest - especially if you are into the whole doom, gloom and despondancy thing.

Surprisingly enough, lyrically anyway, the track appears to be a love song - or very strong lust, I'm not sure which. The musical backing is anything but. A scrapyard at night maybe, with patrolling rottwielers and the occassional Demon of the Dark as light entertainment. Dark as a witches tit even - as the old saying goes. I find that you really have to be into this whole 'black is the new black' thing to really get any kind of enjoyment out of the genre but it is helped by my having a liking for some decent classically heavy metal to hold up it's rotting bones.

The truth is, if you do like the genre, you will very much like this track. As doomy and dark as any other track in the genre, Paul carries the whole thing off with considerable skill. He gives the track a Cure-like production mentality, harbours that to a distinctly 4AD vocal delivery and some very deft guitar strokes to ensure he is getting the point across. OK Paul, I got that message and I'm wearing the T-shirt right now; this is an artist who doesn't NEED a band - he is one. Although the genre doesn't really appeal to me that much, the musical chops certainly does and I'd like to hear more from this artist - hopefully with less of a black cloud attached to it...