Album Review: The Last Knight by Serenity (Napalm Records)

Austrian symphonic metallers, Serenity return with their seventh studio album, The Last Knight, released on the 31st of January via Napalm Records.

The Last Knight is a concept album. It tells the story of Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor who, through a combination of military pressure, treaties, and marriage, expanded Austria’s borders across Europe for his family, the Habsburgs. Serenity tell this story through a collection of powerful songs with huge, orchestral layers mixed with mesmerising solos and powerful vocals.

Serenity are Andreas Schipflinger on drums and backing vocals with Georg Neuhauser on lead vocals. On bass and backing vocals it’s Fabio D’Amore and Cris Tían is on guitars. The Last Knight follows their 2017 release, Lionheart.

The Last Knight is 12 songs, or 52 minutes, of big sounding, emphatic symphonic metal. It starts off with a symphonic intro called The Last Knight and really sets out what to expect over the rest of the album. It’s a glorious start building our gently as different orchestral arrangements start gelling together into a air punching movie battle score. It transitions seamlessly into the second track, Invictus. The new track also heralding the arrival of the metal. A drum roll, some chanted vocals and we shoot off into a little slice of heaven with a quick riff and swirling lead guitar backed by the epic sounds of symphony. Invictus is a good song. It packs in all the expected symphonic metal albums. Strong singing, a catchy chorus and lashings of lead guitar solos and melody.

Set the World on Fire comes next and has a strong 80’s vibe to it. A little touch of Def Leppard perhaps? The simple but still catchy chorus works well enough. The verses really hark back a few decades with their gentle chug backing the powerful clean vocals. There is a banging solo too in a track that sees the symphonic side move back quite far in the mix.

Keeper of the Knights comes next and has an absolute corker of an intro. The guitars are brilliant, joined by a backing chorus before fading out to leave keys playing out a wicked little melody. It’s a solid track lacking just a bit by having a chorus that doesn’t quite stick. The solo definitely makes up for that though. Souls and Sins comes next and is a slowed down song with gently sung verses over a slow chug of guitars. It builds up nicely to a strong chorus. It’s very well sung and easy to listen to.

My Kingdom Comes is next up and sees Serenity pick the pace back up a little. The verses have a slightly darker tone to them, something ramped home as we get a prechorus of unclean singing. That’s the first sign of rough vocals on the album. The chorus is good and the mix of vocals a works really well as it so often does. The drums in the chorus are special too, they get some serious tempo going.

Queen of Avalon follows the pattern again of being very good. I love the screaming guitar intro that gets a little folkish. The verse is fine but the chorus is fire and drenched in symphonic elements that elevate it to higher levels. The solo is fantastic too. No surprises there now. We get a nice little slow down too with just vocals backed by wind instruments adding to the folk vibe. My Farewell is next up and this is the ballad. Musically it leans heavily on piano and symphony in the start whole the singing is delivered gently and passionately. It soon picks up the fuller style with loads of backing vocals and big booming drum pounds. It’s really nice, and very well sung.

With the ballad out of the way, we pick the tempo back up with the altogether darker and faster Down to Hell. The guitars have a nice crunch to them And we also get one of the best choruses on The Last Knight. Wings of Pride is one of my favourites. It has a fantastic stampeding pace to the guitars, occasionally just tailing off for a gentle melodic section. The chorus infects you and some of the instrumental parts are pretty damn heavy. As we approach the end of our adventure we get one final proper track called Call to Arms.

To be honest by now I am expecting nothing more than another cracking track and I’m not disappointed. Serenity chuck a lit into the mix on this last one. Gentle melody and clean singing starts us off before a sudden switch to a thunderous riff and choir singing. The verse has the most amazing descending guitar scratch, the chorus is huge and massively catchy. The solo is great. It is all just brilliant and so comfortable to listen to.

The Last Knight is a triumph. A truly mesmerising symphonic/power metal album that should find itself nicely placed in most end of year top lists. There is little to complain about here. The vocals are great, the guitars are brilliant, the drums and bass add such an important structural layer while both having their own moments of magic. The songs are meticulously composed and the symphonic elements are used kindly throughout. They never overtake the main instruments, only offering support and variety. There are only a couple things, like the odd chorus that doesn’t quite catch, that I found but in an album this good, who cares. Serenity deserve huge praise for The last Knight. It is a fantastic album.

Grab yourself a copy immediately, from here.

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