The Ichor of Chimaera

This band has been around since 2015 (under a different name early on) and is now releasing their debut album, The Ichor of Chimaera, via No Remorse Records. With a name like Serpent Rider, an album title containing the word "ichor" and a label like No Remorse, it shouldn't be a surprise they play doomy, epic traditional heavy metal. They employ a female singer, an increasingly common arrangement in this genre, who has a good voice but sounds a little restrained in her performances. She can sing, just check out the beginning of "Matri Deorum," but otherwise is just hitting the notes and not leaning into the material. The songwriting is also good but again, sounds like you would expect and nothing more. The atmosphere is there but the album is short on excitement. I like The Ichor of Chimaera, but it isn't going to be replacing releases by the likes of Tower, Smoulder or even Savage Master in my rotation. Serpent Rider has the potential to be a player in the female-fronted epic trad metal space but isn't there yet.