Seneca - 'Reflections'

“Boy band” metal that may move the masses but lacks substance and grit.

Lifeforce Records, the German label that launched the careers of such notable acts as Between the Buried and Me, Caliban and Trivium, have just released Reflections, the sophomore effort of Charlotte, North Carolina’s metalcore/deathcore outfit Seneca. And the future looks bright for the band considering the current popularity of the style they forward.

It truly is bizarre that a band that is so heavy, relatively speaking, has the potential to have their mugs plastered on the walls of wide-eyed teenaged girls. But this is a part of the problem.

Arguably so, regardless of fashion sense and visual aesthetics, it can be argued that metal and hardcore should not be “pretty” and appealing to the boy-band market. Metallic boy bands with death grunts? Believe it. You won’t find a trace of genuine Motorhead-like grit on Reflections (not that that is requisite for all heavy bands, but the point is germane since Seneca is indisputably trying to be an intense band).

And in spite of their impressive cohesiveness, technical proficiency and great vocalist, their potential is simply burned away with their reliance on plenty of generic elements like regurgitated drop-tuned breakdowns, good cop/bad cop vocals, and hand-me-down Swedish melodies. And oftentimes, their impressive performance is an exercise in technicality for its own sake.

At times, they are undeniably heavy in an interesting and relatively unique way (“Creator” is one of the catchiest brutal songs I’ve heard this year). And a handful of songs are endearing with an almost Carcass-like intensity, but they tend to cater more to the emo/The Devil Wears Prada crowd with their vocal melodies and choruses. And the manner in which they transition between the brutal and melodic is painfully awkward (similar in this sense to Scar Symmetry). Utterly disappointing.