SEPTICFLESH — The Great Mass (review)

SEPTICFLESH — The Great Mass album cover

Album · 2011 · Death Metal

4.5/5 · 2011-05-13
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The idea of mixing symphonic metal with extreme influences isn’t exactly a new thing, and indeed, The Great Mass stands as the eighth album by Greece’s Septicflesh (formerly Septic Flesh). But where most cases of extreme symphonic metal are symphonic black metal, Septicflesh stands as one of the few artists I’m aware of whose music is actually symphonic death metal, something which is executed to near perfection on this album to create an extreme, yet atmospheric and epic record.

The sound exhibited by Septicflesh on this album combines some pretty heavy and extreme death metal ideas with some dark symphonic backing. Sometimes the death metal is leaning more towards melodic death metal with the inclusion of clean vocals, but generally I don’t detect a lot of melodic death metal elements in the music, although it certainly has plenty of melody on offer. The excellent and often eerie symphonic ideas make the atmosphere really special. The combination of death metal with symphonic metal may not be so common, but here it works very well, with results being for me a lot more interesting than much symphonic black metal, the genre’s extreme symphonic cousin.

I especially like that the band opts to include clean vocals from guitarist/keyboardist Sotiris Vayenas along the harsh growl of Spiros Antoniou. There’s an unusual tone to Vayenas’ vocals, but it fits with the music perfectly, especially the atmospheric parts. There’s also some female soprano vocals included on the album. We hear them right away in opener The Vampire From Nazareth, which is one of my favourites from the album. It’s very dark and very epic as well, with the female vocals creating the perfect haunting intro before the band launches themselves into their symphonic death metal attack, which is fabulous on the atmospheric front, with the heavy guitars and prominent orchestration really hitting the spot as well. It really doesn’t take any more than this track to know that The Great Mass is something pretty special.

As one of those albums with a consistent level of high quality material, The Great Mass should stand as a very easy listen for those into their death metal. I also suspect that it will meet with approval from anyone looking for a somewhat different take on the death metal genre. Track highlights for me include the above mentioned The Vampire From Nazareth, A Great Mass of Death, Pyramid God, Oceans of Grey and Rising quickly establishing themselves as firm personal favourites of mine. They save one of the very best for last though with Therianthropy. Band’s like Septicflesh make it a wonder that symphonic death metal isn’t a more common or popular style, but even if it was, I’d imagine it difficult for others to replicate the sort of quality that Septicflesh showcases on The Great Mass, because things stay extremely strong right from the off, and it’s a true pleasure to listen to. The Great Mass was my introduction to the band but it’s an album that has inspired me to take proper note of them, and I’m sure I’ll be enjoying exploring their back catalogue soon enough.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 9.3/10)