Serotonin Syndrome hail from Northern Finland and originally formed back in 2013. Their last album release, Sarajas, crushed us way back in 2015 and that was a vicious fusion of doom and blackened post-metal. Now they’re back with their second album Seed of Mankind, and that release will see the bitterly cold light of day on January 27th.

However, we don’t have to wait that long to get a flavour of what is to come because Serotonin Syndrome have released the first single from the album, entitled Among Others. To quote the band, "Among others deals with hypocrisy, the human ability to avoid being responsible for one's actions. How a person can lie to oneself to make the reality seem more acceptable. Protagonist is not an exception, but one among the others."

Melodic, dark and heavy with brooding atmospherics, Among Others opens with tremolo shredded chords and harmony-laced lead swells that pave the way for a barrage of high intensity blast beats and vicious guttural screams. Deeply emotive, and casting flashbacks to the doom inspired glory days of the 90’s, Serotonin Syndrome have used their musical influences cleverly, and have elaborated on them and incorporated their own weight and heft to the track. Amidst moments of Paradise Lost’s Gothic era, the band have allowed that funeral pace to dominate the final moments of the track, showing the bands willingness and ability to play a broad spectrum of styles and sounds.

I have been lucky enough to hear the full album, Seed Of Mankind, and I have to say, this music grabs you by the throat and leads you down a merciless and unforgiving path that leads to its inevitable and toe-curling destination, you guessed it, the gates of hell. And fear not, they’re wide open for you to enter. However, When they slam shut behind you, lets just say you have satan’s own soundtrack to keep you company. Enjoy.