One of the worst things a band can do is to try to emulate what was done in the past. In the view of the words Quorthon wrote on "Blood on Ice" booklet, the bands from the 70's and 80's did things on those poor ways because they had only one choice: do their music (and record their albums) with the means they had in hand, or do nothing. And it wasn't the only time once could see it, and maybe it's the reason for many rerecorded albums on the past 20 years. It means: do things in a better way today, because trying to emulate the past is, in reality, a blasphemy against the ancients' works. And the North American band CERES must learn it as soon as they can, because their first release, "Tyrant's Rise", shows that they're on the wrong side of the things.

Their musical work is based on a form of traditional Heavy Metal usual for USA Metal bands that rescue the roots of the genre. It's influenced a lot by works of names as MANILLA ROAD, WARLORD, MANOWAR and MERCYFUL FATE (especially the vocals). But they have enough potential to become great, because their melodies are very good, but the duet must take out of mind that they must be a copy of the past. They're in the middle, so there's time to evade the wrong way and to choose another path for them. The main problem resides in the production, or in better words, in the sonority. It's raw and poor in a similar way to the past, as they were a band from those days (and it's not the case). To be crude and organic doesn't mean to make things in such poor sonority, see the example given by names as ENFORCER and BURNING WITCHES.

"Tyrant's Rise" (fine melodies, indeed), "Blood of the Warrior" (very good use of Hard Rock from the 70's, especially during the chorus), "Remnants of Battle" (another good set of charming melodies), and "Writs of Blood" are good songs, with good ideas, but as they insist to be someone that aren't themselves, their efforts are drowned into the morass of the copies. And these vocals could be better, if Leo would stop trying to be King Diamond (it's not for you, guy).

CERES can do better than is heard on "Tyrant's Rise", so let's hope they'll do it as soon as they can. But if they try to do this again, well, their next release will be a loss of time for sure.