IF YOU CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEW BTBAM ALBUM, JUST LISTEN TO SENECA INSTEAD

If there’s such a thing as “the North Carolina sound” Seneca have got it; think Between the Buried and Me, Glass Casket, even Bloodjinn. No surprise then that Reflections was produced by fellow North Carolinian Jamie King who also produced the former two of the above three bands. Seneca have actually been around since 2002, but their March release Reflections is their first for Lifeforce Records, and it’s a surprisingly solid listen. Seneca actually sound a whole lot like BTBAM in particular — at times a little bit too much — but manage to modify BTBAM’s prog-core sound just enough to be original. Where BTBAM go big and epic with 8 or soon-to-be 6-song albums full of long songs Seneca somehow manage to cram all of their epic structures, song-changes and shred into much shorter templates, with most songs on Reflections coming in at under 4 minutes and many even under 3. There are a few too many deathcore-skirting breakdowns on Reflections for my tastes, but the band still manages to keep it interesting most of the time. Call them the working man’s Between the Buried and Me.

Check out Seneca on MySpace and let us know what you think.

-VN