Serpents - L' ÂGE D'OR

Serpents have been lurking in and out of obscurity for decades. They finally find a way to solidify their long standing legacy in the darker realms of the electro-industrial-EBM landscape. Leave it to the label Electro Aggression Records, to nudge the great beast that has been led by Kazim Sarikaya since the inception in 1988. The band was formed originally with Kazim along with Stefan Kuboteit, Frank Heiner and Nicole Altmann joined a few months later. The band released 3 cassettes between 1989 and 1992. The first was The Clock Strikes The Midnight in 1989, then Until Eternity in 1990, and finally L'Age D'Or in 1992. The cassettes have long been sold out and sought after by collectors and completists. After the buzz from the cassettes, Gothic Arts Records released one of the best debuts of the era with the immortal Terminal Breath in 1993. By the time "Plasma" moved to the timeless classic "Cyberspace" you knew this was going to be a winner and a staple in your CD collection. Every song was laced with evil vibes from the samples to the sinister synth-work. The sound was fueled with shadowy layers that shook the listeners to the very core, while the harder edges throttled the listeners' neck with fierce intensity. Serpents found a way to bridge the best elements of classic EBM with the darker teachings of electro-industrial. It was a beautiful sound that certainly had a lot of influence on the up and coming acts of the time. As time moved on,  the lineup changed, Serpents seemingly went into a slumber with little signs of activity since 1999's What's Fear CD on Out Of Line. It wasn't until 2010 that Serpents released the digital only album Immer Voran! By 2015 Serpents and Electro Aggression Records released the 4th album State Of War that yielded a sound that had plenty of time to develop over the years exploring new textures and approaches. State Of War also included Immer Voran! as the second CD giving it a well deserved physical home.


So, this leads us to the prolific triple CD release that unveils the origins of the beast as well as the best of Serpents re-recorded for your listening pleasure. This will certainly keep one entertained for hours on end with expertly done remastered versions of the 3 cassettes and as well as the first CD featuring 2022 re-recordings of Serpents' best tracks. Unless you own the actually cassettes, it maybe tough to experience the origins of Serpents. Sure, there's always Youtube, but it's a little hit or miss sometimes. Now you can hear the sounds of the glory days remastered for your listening pleasure. The true sounds of the underground explode and ultimately navigate the listener from the past to the present. I am fortunate to own 2 of the 3 cassettes and I decided to play the originals starting with The Clock Strikes The Midnight and the sound is still very good and well beyond the typical cassette release as far sound quality goes. It's been a long time since it was played, but it holds up rather nicely. The remastered version is top notch as well. "Wings Of Darkness" is a true fave along with "Burning". Hearing these tracks again brings back great memories. The remastered versions of the Until Eternity tracks were more impactful than The Clock Strikes The Midnight tracks as you can certainly hear a more powerful and robust sound on the remaster, however the airy synths of the original cassette versions are quite haunting and hold their weight well. I do not own L'age D'Or cassette, so I can't speak to the original sound quality, but Serpents delivers the quality goods in everything I have heard throughout their long standing presence in the dark electronics realm.

 I think this was a prudent move for Serpents and Electro Aggression Records due to the substantial back catalogue that goes beyond the definitive masterpiece, Terminal Breath. Serpents hit their stride early on and the cassettes back that up. It was truly the golden age during those early years of Serpents reign. Bands like Trial, Plastic Noise Experience, Project Pitchfork, Signal Out 42, Second Voice, Æ etc were constantly feeding us amazing music. Serpents were certainly a force to reckon.

The diehard fans that have the tapes and can tell you a lot about them for sure, but the newer fans and the even the casual fan, having easy access to the early material in a remastered version, makes it easy to immerse oneself into the primordial ooze of Serpents through the evolutionary routes that bring us to the present day. It's a statement to the past and nod to the future all in the same breath.

 We will inevitably hear that every album needs to be remastered no matter whether it's Husker Du or Skinny Puppy. Too many times, rereleases add a lot of garbage like audio of banter between members, rehearsals, live and unfinished work. That's not the case here. You get the 3 premium quality discs with the remastered cassettes without the labor of doing too much work to hear the glory that came out 25-30 years ago. It was a chore and half to track down what you wanted through tape trading or buying on the secondary markets to hear the old recordings. Now just load up Bandcamp, and Boom! you're jamming out in no time at all.


As a huge fan of Terminal Breath and Have Fun releases, and the relative ease to find a copy at a reasonable price, I didn't necessarily see a need to remaster it since the originals sounded really good as they were. Well, now you can smash and break things while blasting "Ironworks III" in all of its remastered glory along other greats like "Cyberspace", "Kill What Kills You", "What Is Fear" and so on. On the digital you get some addition bonus material  including "Cyberspace" remixed by R010R as well as 5 other tracks that did not fit on the CD. Of course any loyal follower of EAR could have predicted that. You always get a lot for your hard earned money. "In Your Mind" is the only new track on the 3CD set. Now that the back catalogue is reissued, there seems to only be room now for new Serpentine sounds from the lair of Serpents. 

The layout is filled with photos and words (mostly German). The artwork has a modern update to the leather mouth zipper mask creepy dude that always reminded me of the film The People Under The Stairs. The back cover has an updated Until Eternity cover artwork. The release date for the track "Resistance", 2/24/22 is a tribute to the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion. Click here to secure your all out barrage of hammer-pounding saurian beats. The old school is alive and well!

Mar 10 2024