Serpentine Path - Emanations (2014)

First things first: listen to Emanations at Bandcamp.

I suppose it's still a common complaint that a band has changed "too much" or "not enough" for any individual at any given time.

The new album from Serpentine Path finds itself on the side of "not enough", an unfortunate development given the amount of talent present.

For my part, I guess I was expecting a bit more refinement.  The band added guitarist Stephen Flam and I thought this would lead to more complex or winding guitar parts.  Instead, we have basically the same thing as the 2012 S/T: a bunch of doom tracks that are based on simplistic rhythms with sparse leads.  Granted, there's still the vicious vocal approach of Ryan Lipynsky, and the rhythm section of Darren Verni and Jay Newman is reliable.

There's a severe dearth of energy and memorability in the songwriting, though.  The album as a whole comes off as a rehash of the first LP, except for the fact that it sounds a lot more boring.  There isn't a track like "Aphelion" to invigorate the senses, however briefly.

I'm sure others will refer to this album as a "crushing monolith" of doom, or something to that effect.  And maybe under other circumstances I would agree.  But as it stands now, Emanations is not something I care to return to.