Album Review: Serum 114 - Im Zeichen der Zeit
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Serum 114 hail from Germany and have been creating musical bother for the last decade or so. As my German is awful - I learnt from repeatedly watching Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - it is to my shame that I will be Anglicizing Serum 114’s titles.
In the Sign of the Times is predominantly sang in German but that is not to say they don’t let the music do the talking. A good-time tune is a good-time tune regardless of the lyrics and Serum 114 certainly know how to put together a good-time tune. From the opening track, Fucked Life, through high energy numbers like My Band, Beast and What Can the Moon Do?, Serum 114 maintain a pounding, yet eminently danceable vibe.
Even though Punk Rock Show veers from German into an English chorus, the Teutonic elements leaves us in no doubt of the passion coming through the vocals. The guitar morphs into a dirty rock sound, seemingly at odds with the overall Punk aesthetic of the album, and that is something Serum 114 utilise across In the Sign of the Times.
Although it would be fair to call Serum 114 a Punk band that is to do them something of a disservice. Granted, the beginning moments of Home is Beautiful could sit easily on a Green Day record and the likes of No and Unbreakable have an unmistakeable Pop-Punk feel, but the emotionally charged ballad We Are Failing plucks the heart-strings as strongly as any Desmond Child penned 80s chart-stormer.
A particular highlight is Characters; with its funky bass opening and a guitar hanging in the background as though a whisper on a breeze, it quickly increases tempo and becomes big, urgent and aggressive. This track, above all the others on In the Sign of the Times, I found to be the most captivating and the one that I was drawn back to for repeated listens.
Serum 114 might not be overly familiar to many people but their unique take on Punk and Rock makes them well worth checking out.
