Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Septycal Gorge - Erase the Insignificant (Permeated Records; 2009)

Ever since Septycal Gorge's first album Growing Seeds of Decay I have been a big proponent of this interesting and talented band. They gained some praise but I never felt they got the recognition they deserved  within the scene. I really hope that changes now because Erase the Insignificant keeps everything I loved about Septycal Gorge while seeing the band improve markedly overall.

Septycal Gorge work by writing big, memorable tremolo riffs contrasted to weird and at times dissonant heavy slams. The best comparison I can come up with is a bizarre, widely spaced Disgorge (US) but that doesn't quite capture everything. Septycal Gorge just have their own sound. It is simultaneously brutal and memorable, something which so few bands can do well. In the relatively small genre confines of brutal death metal, good originality is hard to come by but Septycal Gorge have plenty. The vocals are decent wet sounding inhales again reminiscent of Disgorge.

Where Erase the Insignificant particular succeeds is in the slam parts. The big, memorable tremolo riffs are excellent, but the slams make or break this kind of music and Septycal Gorge obviously put a lot of effort into making them sound amazing. One listen to the song "Lobotomia" should convince everyone of this. If you've heard Growing Seeds of Decay and are wondering how Erase the Insignificant compares, I think this area is the biggest improvement.

This album is definitely one of the year's best and I think all brutal death fans should be able to appreciate Septycal Gorge's original yet still brutal sound.

1 comment:

zetasimo said...

This album is one of the best published from an european band in my opinion.
They improved the sound very much and the voice is better too.
Septycal Gorge and Vomit the Soul made good works this year.
Cheers from Italy