REVIEW: Serosa – No Motivation | No Understanding [EP/2018]

Artist: Serosa

Album: No Motivation | No Understanding  – EP

 

Serosa is defined loosely as an essential component of the body’s visceral integument—a component of our soft tissues needed to secrete serous fluid for essential lubrication, nourishment and function. Without Serosa, our bodies fail to function optimally, resulting in desiccation, pathology and injury.

But what does that have to do with the Floridian metalcore project of the same name?

Not much, honestly—but it gives insight into just how important it is that you give a listen to their 2018 EP No Motivation | No Understanding (NMNU for short). A collection of crushing tracks that use everything from scathing riffs, sinister breakdowns and slam-tinted moments of unhinged aggression to launch an all-out war on the listener, NMNU is a ferocious release that stops at nothing to add something fresh, exciting, emotional and—of course—eviscerating to the heavy music scene, especially in a time where it grows harder and harder to turn heads.

 

Serosa’s 2018 EP is a mature and comprehensive display of aggression that hits hard and without remorse from start to finish. Within seconds of “Empty” kicking into gear, the listener is whisked away into a blood-red, rage-fueled haze, implored to swing on everything in sight. Built on booming, goliath percussion and beefed up with gritty, thick bass, No Motivation |  No Understanding is ruthless if nothing else, geared towards a bare-bones, raw display of power and aggression. “Empty” and “The Pull”—the EP’s two first cuts—are relatively pared-down, but other tracks, such as the EP’s title track and “Disconnect” are more intricate, still feeling raw and ferocious but with more meat on the bones—as it were. “No Motivation, No Understanding” is one such track, taking Serosa’s penchant for pummeling drums that oscillate between sludgy and skin-peeling and layering brash, bold riffs that drop into devastating breakdowns at a moments notice. While Serosa are far from anything technical, they absolutely capture intensity using very few frills and tricks. “Empty” is an excellent example: while the song uses pretty straightforward riffs and grooves to make its point, it makes a damn good point, building to a bone-busting, flesh-searing breakdowns that is explosive enough to level an entire city block. That approach holds true to the entirety of No Motivation | No Understanding—using very little in the way of tricks and gimmicks to make an impressive and deceptively beefy display of no-holds-barred aggression.

 

It doesn’t just end with the relentless instrumentation Serosa bring to the table: No Motivation | No Understanding is home to terrorizing vocal work and intense lyrics that make it a comprehensively abrasive release (in the best way possible). With lyrics that run the gamut between rampant hatred and introspection and vocals that heir on the heavier, low and gritty side, songs like “Empty” (featuring Floridian powerhouse Kyle Medina) and “The Pull” are two ends of the spectrum that No Motivation | No Understanding bring to the table—with the remainder of the cuts filling in the rest. While Serosa might not necessarily reinvent the wheel where vocal work is concerned, that doesn’t stop the band from having powerful lyricism to bridge the gap to the listener, making the ruthless and unfiltered nature of the growls, roars, screams and shouts abundant on the record hit home like a series of tidal waves.

 

No Motivation | No Understanding remains a somewhat misleading title for the band’s latest effort. Serosa were clearly motivated to create a streamlined display of sinister brutality with this series of tracks, and they succeeded to a point where just about anyone with ears could understand it. True—it isn’t a genre-redefining release, but not every release is meant to be that, and expecting so is closed-minded—so without editorializing further, if you go into NM|NU with the understanding that you’re about to be pulverized by some concentrated, crushing aggression straight from the humid depths of furious Florida, then you will be anything but disappointed.

 

9/10

For Fans Of: Bodysnatcher, Deadland, I AM, Born a New

By: Connor Welsh