Femme-Metal Friday: Serenade “Hold me Back”

Band photo

Although I am writing about a new band here this week, it will probably come as no surprise to anyone that it's another band from Italy! However, I must plead my case and say that this week's entry started out as mistaken identity!

When you have a one-word band name like “Serenade”, not only are you tough to find in a Google search, but you also risk the chance that there are several other bands with the same name, as is the case with this week's entry.

I should probably back up a little: as I wrote last holiday season, I love Christmas music. A few years back, one of my favorite internet radio stations played a lovely German rendition of “Silent Night”. However, the band's name escaped me, and countless online searches yielded nothing, until the same radio station played a song by a band called Serenade. The name rang a bell, and sure enough, after a quick YouTube search, there was the Christmas song I had been seeking.

Now, I cannot be sure if that was the same Serenade that led me to the one I was looking for, but when I got an e-mail link to this video, I assumed I was reviewing a German symphonic metal band called Serenade that had a Christmas song that I liked. Imagine my surprise to learn that there was another female-fronted symphonic metal band from Italy, also called Serenade!

However, mistaken identity can be a good thing, and as I have found, Italy has no shortage of excellent music, so the Italian Serenade is another great band I can add to the list. How fun this has been, to discover new music while sharing new music with all of you!

The video for “Hold me Back” is pretty simple: the band performs in a dark room, with occasional close-up shots of each bandmember. Serenade's vocalist, Claudia, is shown in fog, or surrounded by candles. She is also rocking some cool purple lipstick, which matches bassist Dario's guitar strap. Even metal bands wearing all-black can be color-coordinated!

For more information on Serenade, visit their official website.

Thanks to Alex at Grand Sounds.