#VAGABONDZREVIEW: REBELLIX - SERPENT'S KISS EP

Nov 3, 2021
7 min read

Greetz everyone, it's finally the new review time! I start writing this one being in really good mood and pinning hopes for this record to be extremely rocking for some reasons I gonna share in this blogpost.

Today I'm going to tell you about Rebellix - the up and coming band from Helsinki, Finland. The band's asked me to review their brand new record and I agreed with great enthusiasm. I'm a bit familiar to the band's history already and even listened to the one of their previous records called The Final Decay. It was EP released in 2018 and since I was convienced that band to be promising one. And having listened to their brand new EP, I can surely say hell yeah, these guys have big potential to enter bigger stages!

This summer happened the event fundamentally important for the band. On July Rebellix signed to Finnish record label Inverse Records, so it was pretictable for some music to be round the corner. So was that. The band's long awaited EP named Serpent's Kiss saw the daylight on October 15. Available for streaming NOW!

The newest EP includes 4 songs. According to the band members, Rebellix music combines several genres including thrash metal, hard rock and punk rock. Additionally in this record I also heard something really special and capturing that compliments thrashy and speedy guitar riffs very well...

To find out that exactly, we should start with the song by song review first.

Serpent's Kiss

The ones who read the previous reviews on Vagabond'z Spirit must know about me paying much attention to the songs lower range section. As a basement of the track it builds the song mood and adds the specific features typical for the played genre. Serpent's Kiss lower range section intruments namely kick, bass and rhythm guitars establish durable and rigid basement demonstrating the strong thrash metal influnce. This section sounds convincing and full keeping the dynamics for all the song length.

The song starts with bass line creating the impression of classic song beggining for plenty of thrash metal songs. So as for entering guitar riff idea uniting thrash and heavy metal and in combination with those convincing blast beats it catches the attention immediatly and makes me really headbanging.

When verse rapidly starts, I equate the vocals to have many punk features. Must say it nicely compliment to the background music creating kinda "rebel" mood with freedom, power and energy emphasized. I like the way vocals sound in combination with guitar riff, strictly following the changes in composition and mood when the verse changes for bridge.

But there aren't only fast and heavy riffs. In chorus there're a bit more melodics that give some air to the song. Complimented by greater deal of overhead section the sound becomes wider and more powerful adding up to song dynamics. There're a bit less dynamics in song chorus, and to my mind it could sound a bit more clear and louder because the chorus idea is great and powerful itself and that would be nice to point it out more.

Guitar solo, so soon! Frankly speaking when it started I caught so nice vibes. That were something like greeting from the past and my favorite band of all times Santa Cruz. Here I feel their influence a little bit when the guitar solo starts immediately after vocals end. This idea to start playing solos right away was brilliant.

After the second chorus there are speech and drums on the background and it's surely the sign to prepare for something wild. A great deal of shred guitar solos. At the moment when the guitars join forces I've felt another Santa Cruz influence. This joining sounds even melancholic and this feature makes the Finnish music different. Closer to the end the double guitar solos sound just exhilarating and so damn skillful.

Rebellix has also released the music video for Serpent's Kiss featuring Johannes Eckerström (Avatar) and his wife in the end of the video. The sort of humor was classic for rock music, no spoilers here, you'd better watch it yourselves!

Fuck You

That guitar riff!! I like the way the kick sounds even deeper than in previous track, emphasizing that lower range guitars. It was made also deeper, and much energy is felt here. In some case the guitar riff reminded me of Santa Cruz once again, namely the song Alive taken from the band's debut release. One of the chorus parts in Alive has the lines "shut up, shut up, shut up!" that's the exact moment where I felt a bit of Cruz influnce in Fuck You. On one hand it's quite obvious because both bands are inspired by old-school hard rock/heavy metal and older bands often used such tune in their songs. I can even call that "hangout tune" because it makes me want to headband so bad. Wish I heard that riff live, that must be just totally exhilarating.

Talking about the vocals I can even draw a slight analody with Tom Araya from Slayer, because of the same speed and power in Fuck You vocal lines. It's noticible that this song also has the same "rebellion" spirit and the brightest part we can hear that is chorus. The chorus is simple but bright and would sound so perfect on the live show to scream it with the band out loud.

With the chorus part developing the mood changes and this "hangout" song receives slight sorrow and dreamy shade but soon it goes back to basics. Unstoppable energy of the song as a whole makes that outstanding.

To catch the "rebellion" spirit also in the visual way, Rebellix has filmed the music video for this song. This one was mainly filmed on Helsinki's Iso Roobertinkatu, the most popular pedestrian street in the city. I felt enourmous nostalgia watching this one... And yeah, shred solos were on the top!

Play The Game

I like that kickass guitar riff! It has many old school thrash metal vibes and reminds me a lot about Pantera and Slayer especially. This is really amazing start of the song and this energy instantly makes headbanging. But then comes the true game changer.

Play The Game seems to be bridge from thrash metal to melodic death metal on this EP. The joint was made in unexpected but really smooth way. When listen to the song beginning you immediately get convinced it's gonna be another thrash metal song. But this bright lead guitar part is a breath of fresh air for the whole EP opening the other side of Rebellix music. The lead solo is catchy and it adds up to the dynamics, especially after the first verse.

This song differs from the previous two tracks. Here we hear more melodeath influnce, than thrash metal one. To my mind it was a good step for the band to spice up the record adding the new colors. There's also huge Children of Bodom and precisely Alexi Laiho's influnce both in riff making and solo writing, but still the band goes its very own path in composing.

Also need to notice choir backing vocals that was another feature of making good dynamics in this song and the way lead guitar solo sounds with kick. It's good way to join song parts and start another great shred solo. One by another the both guitarists are just nailing it!! And the way it gets back to the main lead solo that is totally amazing.

Hail To The Sky

Perfect way to support melodeath spirit on the record. I really like how Rebellix does melodics and it's the first to draw attention here. As the verse starts there remains kickass guitar riff on the background. Generally speaking, this is the feature of all the songs from this EP - the vocals are always supported by guitar.

To my mind there was one one moment before chorus part with a lack of dynamics when backing vocals are joining forces with the lead vocal. Would be great to have more dynamics in vocal lines or maybe slighly mute guitar there.

But the chorus itself sounds just great, I even feel a little power metal influnce here in vocals.

Including amazing and top level lead guitars work here there was something I could't even expect... Piano melody as a song ending was a real surprise. I think I expected another guitar solo or something like that but this kind of ending is a good way to finish some speedy song. It opens the new horizons in Rebellix music and I find this totally marvelous.

About the Entire Record

Guitars. And even more guitars. That's what I find thrilling in these songs. Lead guitar writing skills are on the high and many incredibly technical and advanced solo lines prove that point. As a guitar player I just can't find proper words to express my admiration to the guitar players Samuel and Tomi. Really big work was done behind the record and the final result is just impressive. I like the way guitars dominate the record both with riffs and catchy lead parts essential for Finnish heavy metal music.

To tell the truth, when I was about to start listening the EP I hoped to hear thrash/punk vibes only but these guys can surprise. With including the lead melodic parts and to the last two songs Rebellix demonstrared versatility and urge to add the new tones to the music. Mentioning piano melody in the end of Hail To The Sky I can't even imagine bigger surprise for the records. Being a big lover of melodeath, I can do nothing but only support Rebellix with their intentions! That's the second thing that caught my ear the most. I also felt this EP to be kinda splitted in two parts - the first two songs are closer to old-school thrash metal and punk but the last two - to modern metal/melodic death metal. The both ways the band goes are made totally amazing.

I should also express my admiration to mixing/mastening engineers. The way drums sound was built in the record is incredible and professional and I'm sure that having proper drums on the record will bring the band to the high. The drums sound as a whole reminds me of Santa Cruz again. The deep sound of kick while the both guitar player ripping the solos is something that catches attention all the time. I find it so hard to choose the song I liked the most because all of those are about the genres I prefer. But say Play The Game really touched me with lead guitar parts and at the moment I can't get enough of this one.

Ending my in-deep review I would like to claim that the band is able to create its very own sound delivering outstanding modern metal music with great old-school spirit. With mixing up different genres Rebellix rapidly makes its very own path in writing music that will hopefully reach the high new level in short terms.