Septic Mind - Истинный Зов [The True Call] - review
Septic Mind - Истинный Зов [The True Call] - review
Tracklist
01. Истинный Зов02. Обречён Грешить
03. Планета Больна
A review by
BitterCOld January 05, 2012
In the past year or so, I've reviewed 28 albums for Solitude Productions (and sub-labels), and Septic Mind's prior effort, 2010's The Beginning was easily my favorite of the lot. It violated me, leaving me curled up in fetal position in the shower, scouring away with Lava soap and a brillo pad while incoherently and repeatedly muttering "Unclean! Unclean!"
Being a sequel of sorts, and a sequel to an album I was particularly blown away by, it suffers from the dreaded high bar of lofty expectations... and The True Call fell a bit short.
Structurally they don't deviate from the basic approach of the last album. The release contains three songs, all of which are slower and longer than a 20 mile rush hour commute on the LA freeway. The three tracks have slow, trippy ambien(t) moments and crushing doom at a pace that makes a snail's crawl look like blitzkrieg in comparison. Well, the closer, "Planet Is Sick" is an upbeat ditty that might keep up with that snail.
The slow, trippy ambient bits seem improved a tad from last time, some reminiscent of watching old Tom Baker-era Doctor Who while having a bad trip. There is a little post-y element tossed in to the intro segment of "Doomed To Sin."
The psychedelia often continues bleeding into and tainting the doomed passages, giving it a quality similar to Esoteric, which can be construed as complimentary given that band's position at the top of that niche of the doom genre.
The letdown mostly comes from the doom in this one... Perhaps repeated listens to The Beginning helped me develop a bit of a tolerance to it, but this one does not seem to pack quite the same impact. Some of it is the presence of psychotropic currents, to be sure. But this one, particularly in the production, seems to have smoothed out some of the abrasive elements.
Sure the music is still horrifying and an affront to all humanity... but less so.
While The Beginning was sonic Ebola that had you hemorrhaging internal organs out your ear holes, The True Call is more akin to Consumption. And not the good kind of consumption (you know, booze!), but the TB kind.
And in closing, it must be said that while I referred to this as a "let down", it was merely comparative to their prior release... The True Call still gives a heavy sack beating to most the "extreme" doom (brought to you by Mountain Dew... or is it Mountain Dewm?) I've heard and reviewed this year. This is a really good album that will wafflestomp your soul.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written on 05.01.2012 by
Written on 05.01.2012 by
BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. Comments
Comments:
9
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Posts: 6941
I lolled hard at "Mountain Dewm." Also "trippy ambien(t)" and the ebola/TB metaphor were pretty brilliant. I didn't hear the brillo-pad-inducing previous album so maybe I'll quite like this one. Trippy ambien(t) and crushing doom sounds pretty sweet! 
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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 Posts: 21306 |
Posts: 21306
I forgot about this since you took such a long time to review it.  I'll check to see if YouTube has some uploads tonight.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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Posts: 15359 Written by Troy Killjoy on 06.01.2012 at 02:52 or visit their bandcamp page, as per this news item, it's streaming there.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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Posts: 21306
Thanks boss! 
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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Posts: 4774
Great review. like the little lol-points scattered throughout 
---- loves 小巫
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Posts: 889
I didn't know they released a new album last year. To be honest, I couldn't get into the previous one, but I will give this one a try.  Nice review, by the way.
---- "And we are not who we think we are We are who we're afraid to be" - Lux Occulta "The Opening of Eleventh Sephirah"
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Posts: 40071 Written by Merchant of Doom on 07.01.2012 at 11:37 and what about their second album?
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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Posts: 702 |
Posts: 702 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 07.01.2012 at 15:53 lol... never listened to the first album... in fact, I didn't even know it existed.... so, I meant the second one... thank you for pointing that out, though, eagle eye...
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