Death Metal Album of the Week: Septic Flesh – Mystic Places of Dawn

Septic Flesh’s first album fits very neatly into the old Hellenic scene as a collosus of melodic majesty, but where this one differs from the other noteworthy Grecian offerings is precisely what makes it suitable listening for our ritual of death-worship this week. Not unlike the infamous Nordic Black Metallers in the earliest stages of their musical careers, a lot of the Greek Black Metal bands began playing more rotten music before unleashing their fusion of epic Heavy and Black Metal, and Septic Flesh would be no exception two albums later with their own output of blackness, ‘The Ophidian Wheel‘. ‘Mystic Places of Dawn’ however, retains a little more of this band’s origins in Death Metal and Grindcore even though what ensues on this record is some of the most melodically articulate and enchanting music produced by this ancient country in modern history. The Greek underground was definitely a pandaemonic entity, and where some would exhalt Lucifer or some unknown underworld monarch, the band in question carved out their own mysterious and forgotten mythology of a far less ‘blackened’ conception, leading to the diverse approach of this release.

The opening track launches from deep below the Aegean sea floor and is quick to demonstrate Septic Flesh’s background in Death Metal with intense, rhythmically conscious blast-beats and kick-drumming that approaches the speed of Proscriptor on Absu’s famed percussive exhibition known as ‘Tara‘. Amidst this brutality are epic melodies that, although following familiar scalic patterns, are beautifully woven together between windtunnel shredding and grind-encrypted riffs. The slower tempos that dominate the rest of this work explore ethereal sensations of reflection upon lost spiritual wisdom, with keyboards taking cues from Rotting Christ. Older, sometimes tribal, sometimes Classical sounds produced by additional instrumentation goes further to create an atmospheric Metal approximation of the mystical, neoclassical and world music of Dead Can Dance on albums such as ‘Within the Realm of the Dying Sun‘ or ‘Aion‘. Caught in a dream of the past that might enliven the yearning of our waking lives for civilisation to once again resonate ancient and cosmic knowledge, Septic Flesh took Greek underground Metal to new heights, managing to seamlessly encapsulate all the major styles of Metal in the process.

1 Comment »

1. 

   One of the most esoteric Greek albums ever, the mythological ambiguity of not going all the way to the black/evil/necromantean metal trend of the time means it has dated very elegantly, just like Darkthrone’s debut. The next album “Esoptron” was very good as well.

   Comment by Devamitra — January 21, 2010 @ 09:44

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