Once upon a time I stumbled upon an album called “Ophidian Wheel” thus greeting the work of Greece’s SEPTIC FLESH for the second time. I remember the track “Return To Carthage” from “Death Is Just The Beginning Vol. 3” and thought it was a brilliant and devastating song full of brutality, melody and mysticism all in one. An impulsive decision was made, I bought the album but didn’t get that much out of it as it was too skinny in sound (they used a drum machine and I hate drum machines), the music was ok though.

So that was my one time relationship with the band or so I thought. “Sumerian Daemons” was to be the last release from the band, rumors went about a killer album that contained Dreamy Death Metal with nightmarish atmospheres clouded with modern sounds, that’s the kind of description that builds up my interest so I went for it and bought it with a certain feel of deja-vu!

This time the band blew my expectations. Actually, it only took one song to do that, the intro was quickly forgotten but as soon as “Unbeliever” started to blast through the stereo with fast blast beats, brutal guitars, dark quotations and demonic vocals from band leader Set’h I was compelled to bow down to this amazing piece of Modern Death Metal.

The atmosphere is mostly punishing, semi gothic, orchestral and operatic with many symphonic keyboards and luminous and enchanting female vocals, just listen to “Virtues Of The Beast”, “Faust”, “Red Code Cult“, “Mechanical Babylon” and the title track itself. Sometimes the band slows down with melodic tunes like the albums catchiest song “Infernal Sun” and the PARADISE LOST influenced pair “Dark River” and “Magic Loves Infinity”.

The clever use of electronics and industrial sounds is what makes the album special together with the vocal experimentation. I must say that the band came up with some very good songs with equal emphasis on brutality and melody plus adding a third dimension with the use of electronics, studio effects etc. etc. The knob turning at Studio Fredman resulted in a raw, detailed and heavy production, simply a massive wall of sounds.

Recommended to those into fresh and well-thought Modern Death Metal. (Online March 2, 2005)