Review: Serein – Rivers of Living Water

Style: progressive death metal (mostly harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ne Obliviscaris, Mastodon, Death
Country: United States-AZ
Release date: 17 January 2025

I’ve gotta start this review with a big disclaimer: the mastermind Cooper Meyers of one-man project Serein is the very same Cooper that writes for the Prog Subway. It is impossible to be unbiased, but this EP is worth covering on its own merits, and my review will be as honest and objective as I can make it under the circumstances.¹ 

The first thing to notice is the overall package; Meyers has an obsessive attention to detail, each facet of the overall aesthetic painstakingly woven together. The band name Serein—a meteorological term referring to rain falling from a cloudless sky—and album title Rivers of Living Water tie in thematically with Thomas Cole’s gorgeously beclouded cover art and the flowing, cumulustic band logo; all the water theming is poetically tethered to the concept of a mother trying to bring her child back to life by the lyrics, in which she takes her dead child to the… river of living water. With the conscientious concept and aesthetic, Serein is propped up for a mightily ambitious debut, so how does Cooper’s music stand up to his eye for detail?

He’s an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist, pulling off the complete prog death experience all on his own²—classically Opethian, alternating between somber acoustic sections and the more punishingly heavy sections, Meyers’ Chuck Schuldiner-esque weeping guitar tone bridging the gap. The strongest aspect of Rivers of Living Water is the delightful array of riffs, channeling the full prog death spectrum from the fluttery Dessiderium runs of 4:30 in “In the Arms of Autumn” to the Opeth-ass swing of 1:30 into “Crossing the Plain of Fear” (which appropriately turns into the most splendid acoustic section on the album and could be right out of Blackwater Park). That plaintive acoustic ditty transitions into the stankiest bass tone heard on this side of Warforged’s magnum opus I: Voice—and really, the whole riff from the section would fit right at home on the nightmarish “Cellar”—before becoming a wild Opeth/Warforged hybrid. The bass and guitar tones all throughout Rivers of Living Water paint a canvas of the astral and the abyss so resplendent and vulgar [complimentary] they are, respectively. 

From a production standpoint, Rivers of Living Water is also ridiculous for an artist whose mother just dropped him out of the nest for the first time, praying. I have quibbles—the drums are a tad too loud, the vocals too compressed, especially Robin Tittelbaugh’s backing cleans on the title track—but in an exclusive conversation with the artist, Cooper told me he intentionally exclusively used software that was completely free—the album was completely $0, produced only with instruments and time. The guitars and bass sound vibrant and robust, and even without the small adjustments I’d want in a perfect world, nothing sounds muddy which beats a lot of bands with a thousand times the budget of Serein. Heck, you’d hardly notice the drums were programmed if Meyers hadn’t credited himself with drum programming on Bandcamp; they’re precise and timely but not distracting.

To deliver his heart wrenching story, Meyers alternates between harsh vocals, including hearty rasps and gruff lows and clean vocals: those cleans are the largest misstep on Rivers of Living Water. Let’s just say Cooper sounds like he could be one of the Mastodon singers… but quite constipated; maybe next time, record after some MiraLax or veggies. The only other qualm I have with Rivers of Living Water is that occasionally the influences are worn too clearly on Serein’s sleeves since I can pinpoint when we switch from one goated prog death band to the next in Meyers’ riffage, but Serein never stays on the style of one artist long enough to feel like worship, just admiration of the genre’s greats. 

This review was certainly unusual to write because I know the mind of the artist so much more intimately than normal, but Serein has the potential to really make a name for young Meyers. Chock full of the meaty riffs that death metal fans love, the sleek guitar tones and solos for the tech crowd, and the mammoth song-structures for the prog lover with two hefty 8+ minute tracks, with a bit more artistic growth and perhaps growing into his own form like a butterfly after a month as goo inside of a cocoon, I think a full-length LP could be a heavy hitter not just on our blog, but in the entire prog world. Look out world, our very own Cooper is coming for you.

Recommended tracks: Crossing the Plain of Fear, In the Arms of Autumn
You may also like: Warforged, Stone Healer, Dessiderium, Piah Mater
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: independent

Serein is:
– Cooper Meyers (everything)

1. I did ask Cooper for permission if he wanted me to review Rivers of Living Water under the understanding I would be critical as I would for a normal review. ↩︎
2. Ok, not all on his own. He cheats by having his girlfriend do backing vocals at one point. Why didn’t you go all out and get HRT or do the silly falsetto backing of Mike Portnoy, Cooper? ↩︎