serpentine a touch of heaven

Released: 29 March 2010 Label: AOR Heaven

The album cover and logo for Serpentine's A Touch of Heaven are both so garish, that it was a challenge just to get past them and actually listen to the damned thing; but when I did, I found ten tracks of pure unadulterated AOR keyboard-driven melodic pomp rock, and if that is not enough to put you off, then this is an essential debut release.

Serpentine are the brainchild of keyboard wiz Gareth D Noon, capably aided and abetted by the reliable vocal strains of the ever industrious Tony Mills, who is currently also the singer of both TNT and SHY, which must make him just about one of the busiest vocalists around!

Beginning with the rather-long-for-an-opening-song A Touch of Heaven, it’s clear from the off, what the rest of the album will entail. The keys tinkle along dextrously, with punctuation from the ringing guitar chords, and Mills’ distinctive tones stamp a level of accomplished authority across the entire proceedings.

The song writing throughout reflects this level of quality, catchy melodies abound, although Lonely Nights has more than a touch of ABBA’s Dancing Queen about it at the end of the chorus.

For the Love of it All touches on the anthemic, while the likes of We Belong and In My Blood are more upbeat sounding.

For the most part, A Touch of Heaven is a mid-paced, warm and lush-sounding comfy chair of an album, with most tracks being along the lines of a power ballad.

This is a pretty safe CD overall, in that it follows the musical blueprint laid down by so many other AOR bands before it, but the most unusual choice of song is cover of Toni Braxton’s Unbreak My Heart as an album closer. Still, it is quite an impassioned multi-layered take on the song nevertheless.

The quality of the musicianship across the CD is as uniformly slick and professional as you’d expect of an experienced outfit. The guitar lead breaks are solid without being too showy, and certainly fit with the style of the songs.

For a debut album, this has a decent amount of musical scope and promise on show. It was ably produced by Mark Stuart known for his work with AOR stalwarts Magnum, though for my liking there is probably a bit too much polish on the sound, which results in the guitars lacking anything in the way of bite. Still, If AOR is your bag then Serpentine come highly recommended.

by Steven Hargraves