SERLING — The James Bevis Chronicles / The Hempstead Assignments (review)

SERLING — The James Bevis Chronicles / The Hempstead Assignments album cover

EP · 2024 · Mathcore

3.5/5 · 2024-02-10
siLLy puPPy

SERLING jumped onto the world’s stage in 2022 with its debut “Next Stop, Willoughby” allowing this Augusta, Maine mathcore duo of Caleb Marsters (guitar, vocals) and Brandon Doughty (drums) to offer the world some crazed Twilight Zone inspired mathcore that adopted the foundations of bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, Behold… The Arctopus and Psyopus and add a creative spin to the mix. Yeah the Twilight Zone fascination is strong. The band’s name comes after the Twilight Zone host Rod Serling the the series’ science fiction landscape provides a wealth of subject matter for the band to tackle.

But there was an EP that preceded and that as THE JAMES BEVIS CHONICLES which featured six tracks of unhinged mathcore meets deathcore that provided the perfect torture effect for nearly 16 minutes. Now in 2024, SERLING has rereleased that EP only remastered with the bonus extra EP of THE HEMPSTEAD ASSIGNMENTS which adds another six tracks thus making this double EP a 12 track monstrosity that doubles the torture to 31 1/2 minutes!

Like most mathcore, this is a frenetic wild ride through screaming vocals over a series of guitar antics mostly in the form of chugging in this case however like the most raucous of the mathcore groups, this band doesn’t shy away from bizarre progressive and experimental twists and turns that occur at any given moment. The whole thing comes off as a stampede of monstrous beings on a battle field at times.

The band is also not afraid to use some eerie atmospheric moments as on the opening track “Escape Clause” which starts the second half which begins THE HEMPSTEAD ASSIGNMENTS however they are short-lived before the crushing guitar chugs, riffs and anguished scream vocals that alternate with death growls burn down the house. In fact it’s really hard to believe this is a mere duo making this much noise but these guys really know how to milk the suffocating mix of what’s called panic chords and jittery time signatures into a nerve-racking frenzy.

SERLING also knows the value of dissonance in this cacophonous uproar with jangly power chords stomping away in djent-ish fusion style while throat ripping vocals emerge to terrify the living and raise the dead. This is anxiety music for anxiety’s sake with no fuck’s left to give. This is obviously reserved for only THEEEE most fanatical core fiends out there as mathcore tends to milk every aspect of extreme metal and brutal prog simultaneously. Personally i love this kinda shit and SERLING does a pretty decent job at delivering a style of extreme metal that can become stale fairly quickly.

Perhaps not as innovative as the early pioneers or as arty as i’d like but the delivery is spot on and these guys are truly on fire as well as nurturing a great production value that nurtures every ounce of panic and anxiety that this music is designed to eke from your adrenalized state of existence. The industrial sounds of thrashing chugs remind a bit of Messhuggah and other djent bigwigs but overall this is mathcore meets deathcore through and through with the emphasis on the former and not the latter. even stranger is the release ends in a short piano piece which attempts to pacify the soul after the sonic terror attack but then gets totally weird. Piano mathcore? Yeah that’s here too!