Cea Serin - The World Outside
by Kevin Wierzbicki
Cea Serin is a progressive metal band from the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area and
The World Outside sets the bar very high for others working in that genre. The brainchild of Jay Lamm, the album could almost be thought of as a solo record since Lamm sings, plays rhythm guitar and bass and keyboards, with only drummer and percussionist Rory Faciane as a band member. Lamm has a secret weapon though, or actually a bunch of them as he employs here a handful of hot guitar players to handle all the solos throughout, and there are many of them and they are all impressive. Opening cut "Where None Shall Follow" begins with a delicate piano intro before Faciane rocks into action with rat-a-tat drums and Andy Gillion plays soaring melodic guitar riffs that contrast with Lamm's vocals, screamo at times but also smooth as silk at others. The song goes through plenty of twists and turns over its 12-minute running time and includes a beautiful mid-song interlude that forgoes the metal aspect in favor of pure prog ecstasy for a bit. Slowly the song's heavier side takes over again and another guitar solo, this time from Joao Miguel, features some fast, intricate picking. And this is the joy of The World Outside; there is nothing predictable here. Gillion and Miguel both have solos during "The Rose on the Ruin" and Lamm has both a piano solo and an electric keyboards solo on the cut too, which lyrically explores the finding of what good remains during a dystopian time. A bit thrashy at times, the song also has lots of melodic swooshes like you'd expect from, say, Styx. The cut also features guest vocals from Steffi Cannelli. The 12-minute-plus "Until the Dark Responds" similarly is full of contrasts, pummeling at one moment but also understated enough at others to have a violin solo and a harp solo; besides his vocals Lamm also plays a bass solo and a piano solo while guitar work comes from Miguel, Vick LeCar and the aptly-named Steve Blaze. Other guitarists contributing here include Manuel Acevedo, Coen Strouken, Cecilia Cuccolini and Dann Hoyos. Lyrics for the album, one of the strongest prog metal releases of the year, are found in the CD's booklet.
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