“Darks Fields Of Pain” is the second album of Serpentia, another exponent of the Polish underground metal scene. Metal Mind Productions seem to be doing a good job as they have released quite a few albums lately. Not all releases are equally enjoyable but with this output they have a very decent album. Serpentia plays a melodic style of death metal with similarities to the Gothenburg style, made famous by At The Gates, but with a more aggressive undertone. The vocals not only include a low death grunt but also a higher pitched grunt comparable to God Dethroned or Detonation and even some clean parts.

The tracks are very varied and feature a lot of tempo changes resulting in songs that don’t bore easily. On the other hand the huge number of tempo changes makes it difficult to really get into the tracks.

The influences are very diverse. As before mentioned the main style is melodic death metal but one can also hear a Hecate Enthroned style black metal keyboard instrumental intermezzo, Viking style vocals and spoken samples (from the movie “The Mothman Prophecies”).

The production is pretty good, maybe the bass guitar is too much up front sometimes but that doesn’t matter much because it’s not too annoying. I’m curious how they are going to perform “Dark Fields Of Pain” live because vocalist Panzerfaust often utilizes both his low and high grunt. But that is of later concern, for now Serpentia has released a pretty good album that should gain them some fame in the metal scene because it’s worth it.