Glasgow five-piece Serotone have apparently been causing a small stir, both north and south of the border, with their live shows. Although eight of the eleven tracks here previously appeared on Moment of Transparency, their self-released demo, Equilibria is their official debut and, after a few listens, it’s easy to see what the fuss is about. First single – and one of the new recordings – ‘Shine Alone’, for instance, goes from a nice melodic intro into a satisfyingly crunching chorus with a rather catchy hook.

The press release picks out this and two others, the slightly quieter ‘Blinded’ and ‘No Parts’ as particular highlights, but therein lies the problem. Had I listened to just those three tracks, I may have been much more excited about the band, yet listening to the whole album I found it less than the sum of its parts. While most of the songs are good, with only the odd dud such as the slightly dreary ‘Try’, most are a little too similar to each other and consequently tend to blend into a single, indiscriminate mass.

Moreover, it seems that they have a slightly inflated opinion of themselves, name-checking the likes of Tool, Mars Volta and Deftones as influences. All of those are generally considered ‘thinking man’s metal’, but Serotone aren’t quite in the same league – they’re closer in fact to Incubus or Breed 77, albeit still slightly more intelligent than most. While more is always to be encouraged, if you want intelligent British metal I suggest turning first to Miocene or Earthtone9 (RIP).

I don’t mean to be too critical, though. This is certainly a respectable debut, especially in small doses; but Serotone should currently be hailed more for their potential than achievement.

(3/5)