If you ain’t gonna reinvent the wheel, then you might as well slap some nice rims on that bitch.  That, my friends, is exactly what Septycal Gorge have done with their latest release Scourge of the Formless Breed.  Septycal Gorge is a band I’d recognized from their first LP that I own, Growing Seeds of Decay.  Their second one, Erase the Insignificant, didn’t really grab me, but I did have high hopes for this one.  It didn’t disappoint.

Where the last album was basically just blast-blast-double bass with an overall weak production, this latest release has much more emphasis on songwriting; or as much as can be expected from the brutal death metal realm.  From the first track and throughout the whole album, the band shows off its speed capability with the best of them.  But the stop-start interplay between the drums and guitars that are present on the first track “Living Torment of the Sleeping”, show up often throughout the album and really add a nice technical touch to the whole thing.

The first six track demonstrate this all very nicely, with drummer Davide “Brutal Dave” Billia, who fans might know from land speed record smashers Antropofagus and Putridity; so needless to say the drums are the star of the show on this one.  However in addition to being able to play at light speed, it’s the restraint and double bass control that is shown on tracks such as “Breed of the Rejected” and “Urizen – The Burning Son” where you really see how good Billia truly is.  Vocalist Mariano Somá keeps an awesome low death growl throughout the whole thing and does a very good job of almost stabbing his voice in and out of the drum and guitar maelstrom.  The guitars never really venture into full on tech mode, staying mainly with the chugs and scale runs.  It can get a little monotonous to non-fans of the genre but is just what the brutal death metal doctor ordered.

After the first six tracks you get to my personal favorite – “Deeds of Eternity”.  Anyone who has followed my reviews knows I’m a born sucker for a nice mid to upper-paced crushing  guitar track backed by some powerful double bass and creative fills, and this song is exactly what gets my metal blood flowing and the head bobbing.  The last two tracks finish with a flourish to bring the whole show to a close just above the 33 minute mark.  An overall crushing album, and a phenomenal return to form for one of the best little-known underground brutal death bands.

 

 

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