SERIOUS BLACK – Mirrorworld (Album Review)

Last year they served us the As Daylight Breaks album. Now this year, SERIOUS BLACK is seriously back! Their newest offering entitled Mirrorworld will be available on September 9, 2016, from AFM Records. Membership in this elite supergroup has seen some adjustments since As Daylight Breaks. Still in the clan are Urban breed (ex-Tad Morose, ex-Bloodbound), Mario Lochert (ex-Visions Of Atlantis), Dominik Sebastian (Edenbridge) and Jan Vacik (ex-Dreamscape). Apparently, the membership cards of Roland Grapow (Masterplan, ex-Helloween), Thomen Stauch (ex-Blind Guardian) have expired, however. We find guitarist Bob Katsionis (Firewind) and drummer Alex Holzwarth (Rhapsody Of Fire) inducted into the fold for Mirrorworld.

We begin the Mirrorworld experience with a near two-minute intro. As I feel about most intros, it doesn’t serve any real purpose for inclusion here. From there we things get rolling with the explosion of “As Long as I’m Alive”. A meaty piece of Power Metal pie.

“Castor Skies” adds some harmonic melodies into the mix while “Heartbroken Soul” has a radio-friendly power ballad-ish feel to it. Dripping with melody, “Dying Hearts” leads us through to “You’re Not Alone” in a similar fashion to that of “Heartbroken Soul”. All the while, the golden voice of Urban Breed takes the forefront and has a chance to shine freely. The pace vaults into second gear once again through “You’re Not Alone” but it’s the title track of “Mirrorworld” that’s the real choice cut here. A darker feeling track, “Mirrorworld” features a groove you could easily fall into with the fantastic soloing keeping your head above water.

The back end of Mirrorworld is held down by “State of My Despair” and “The Unborn Never Die” in positions #7 and #8 respectively. I don’t count the two-minute intro as a track, so that means Mirrorworld only sees eight compositions.

Unlike many supergroups, these dudes actually play and tour live. Last year SERIOUS BLACK played tours with HammerFall and Gamma Ray to support As Daylight Breaks. In addition, they appeared at a few festivals and had a guest spot supporting Kamelot. This year SERIOUS BLACK are preparing for a headlining tour in support of Mirrorworld.

Although I gave a good review to SERIOUS BLACK‘s As Daylight Breaks I literally have never played it since. Taking that into consideration, I would comfortably say that Mirrorworld bests its predecessor.