There seems to be an unhealthy amount of metalcore originating from the usually respectable country of Germany. And they all seem to be on Lifeforce. Out of these bands, Fall of Serenity is one of the better ones, or at least one of the least annoying of the bunch. The worldwide metalcore herd needs some serious thinning out, but Fall of Serenity is one of the bands I think I could spare if I were in a good enough mood. On a bad day I would delete the genre from our collective memory altogether.
Fall of Serenity sounds similar to Heaven Shall Burn, and in fact, the two bands even shared a vinyl split in 1999. They aren't a carbon copy, but take the same approach and speed it up a bit (there's even a couple blast beats). They definitely do have that same dark, moody sound going on, but not in a lame, contrived way, which you see, in American metalcore. The lyrics dwell on personal struggles with hatred and suffering, which are a bit monotonous. But at least there's none of that whiny crap about bleeding hearts, mascara, or Valentine's Day.
Fortunately for Fall of Serenity, their music is much more tolerable than most of their genre. Breakdowns are few and far between, and there are even hints of genuine melodic death metal to be found. And there's no singing.
