HOLY SERPENT hail from Australia, giving off a nice scent of Doom and Stoner Metal, I say Doom because they remind me of a band called GEVAUDAN, both bands have that similar trait of Doom Metal but HOLY SERPENT combine that.

HOLY SERPENT has a very loud production to it, if you have listened to METALLICA's "Death Magnetic" you will know where I am coming from with this, some jumpy bits now and then but if you are like me, that should not bother you too much, for me personally I enjoy an extremely loud production, it just adds that extra bit of power, although in some cases that does need correcting through time and perfection.

Not saying the album is rushed, it holds fantastic musical value, some heavy pounding riffs and a VERY loud bass line which adds my point to the sound production, again, for me I have no problem with that most of the time unless the album is actually good and this is a good album, I am a happy rocker.

The title track "Holy Serpent" is probably my favourite on the album, it is so catchy and the pounding heavy riff it loops with just makes me want to "pound" (as ANVIL would say) to that riff on and on. Some great vocals add for a great, enjoyable track.

"Shroom Doom" is another rocker for me, when I think of words like "Shroom" this is where the Stoner genre comes in, still implementing the heavy, rockin' riffs with a more slower tone and adding an extra bit of calmness in those riffs. Highly enjoyable.

The vocals I have to talk about a bit more, giving off that typical Stoner vibe, Scott Penberthy does a fantastic job at keeping those high notes right up, all the way through. Very talented indeed.

Progressing through to "Fools Gold" the tone slows down even more, keeping the fantastic loudness and brutal riffs with high pitched, calming vocals, I never thought I'd say "calming vocals" in a Metal band before.

This pretty much concludes the rest of the "album" which feels more like an EP to me being a 5 song CD. But they are very long and addicting songs. The Doom and Stoner elements are very "high" in this CD. It adds a "cool" sense of solitude as I progress into "The Plague", not very much insanity but at I like how the CD starts off greatly fast and heavy and slowly ends nicely slowly but still gives off the killer brutality that I have already mentioned.

My final thoughts to conclude, this CD is well written but the sound production could have had a bit of extra work to it to make it sound clearer and smoother. 5 songs in total but most are 5-10 minutes long anyway, like most Doom / Stoner Metal bands.

Definitely worth checking out at the very least.