The SLoT - Septima review
| Band: | The SLoT |
| Album: | Septima |
| Style: | Alternative metal, Nu metal |
| Release date: | February 19, 2016 |
| A review by: | ScreamingSteelUS |
Disc I
01. Реинкарнация
02. Мочит, Как Хочет!
03. Русская Душа
04. Ctrl+ Z
05. Зал Ожидания
06. 4 Шага
07. Туда, Где Небо...
08. Я Знаю
09. Круги На Воде
10. Стёкла Розовых Очков
11. Страх И Агрессия
12. Верю/Не Верю
13. Платно
Disc II [Bonus Disc]
01. Сила Притяжения
02. Стёкла Революции
03. Мёртвые Звёзды [live]
04. Доска [live]
05. Реинкарнация [instrumental version]
06. Мочит, Как Хочет! [instrumental version]
07. Русская Душа [instrumental version]
08. Ctrl+ Z [instrumental version]
09. Зал Ожидания [instrumental version]
10. 4 Шага [instrumental version]
11. Туда, Где Небо... [instrumental version]
12. Я Знаю [instrumental version]
13. Круги На Воде [instrumental version]
14. Стёкла Розовых Очков [instrumental version]
15. Страх И Агрессия [instrumental version]
16. Верю/Не Верю [instrumental version]
17. Платно [instrumental version]
Aside from the time they literally made the same album twice, The SLoT has never made the same album twice. Even 14 years in, Cache and ID still have new ways to challenge themselves and their bandmates into broaching new territory. Now officially nine-for-nine, The SLoT once more answers the question of how perfection can be improved upon.
Though Septima, like every Slot album, has its own recognizable atmosphere and style, it does bear some similarities to F5 in its spirit and approach to songwriting. In fact, Septima displaces F5 as the darkest and heaviest album in The SLoT's catalogue, and could very well be the band's most mature effort to date as well. Somber, darkly beautiful melodies abound, backed by synthesizers and bludgeoning riffs, brought to fruition by Nookie's emotional vocals. "Русская Душа," "Туда, Где Небо," "Круги На Воде," and "Я Знаю" already stand out as some of The SLoT's most powerful and soulful works. "Русская Душа" quickly took precedence as my favorite song from the album and it seems likely to stay that way, though it certainly faces stiff competition at every turn.
The SLoT has always experimented with the electronic aspects of its sound, looking for more modern and unconventional ways to adapt machinist flavors; songs like "Ctrl+Z" and "Мочит, Kак Xочет!" integrate computerized effects more seamlessly than ever, and various synthetic elements always lurk in the background to provide more expansive atmospheres. The devastating trudge of "4 Шага" proves that even a band as flexible and melodic as The SLoT can sculpt a solid mammoth of a song now and again. "Платно" begins as the most verbally exhausting rap of Cache's career, but exactly halfway through transitions into a funky carnival of vocal exercises from Nookie; the album fades out with sly recollections of Nookie's most recent solo material.
My many praises of Шестой need no recapitulating, but with the wide variety of styles and moods the album embraces, Шестой feels mildly schizophrenic; there's no rug that ties the room together. Septima once more recalls F5 more strongly than Шестой, with a very consistent drenching of moody melodies and murky tones; the songs on Septima feel very much cut from the same cloth. Septima is, in addition, an important chapter in The SLoT's career, as the first album since Тринити recorded without NiXon on bass and the only album aside from the band's debut not to feature The Dude on drums. I'll certainly miss The Dude's drumming, but Ghost does an admirable job of taking over.
I have reviewed The SLoT on two other occasions, and just as on those two other occasions, I'm going to rate Septima a 9.8 and within two months wonder what the hell I was thinking and just bump it up to a 10 already. ?probably. In fact, I'd give it a 10 right now were it not for the children's choir on "Страх И Агрессия." As usual, my only complaint (children aside) is that this album didn't have more songs on it - in this case, the unparalleled singles "Стёкла Революции" and "Сила Притяжения," which I was quite hoping would make an appearance here. I'll have to get my hands on the two-disc special edition one of these days. As always, The SLoT completely knocks all expectations out of the park; Nookie is sounding better than ever, and I have yet to be disappointed by this band.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 10 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 8 |
 | Written on 17.04.2016 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct. |
Comments
Comments: 24
Visited by: 500 users
| M C Vice ex-polydactyl Posts: 3418  |
I take it the singer made a full recovery from her knife attack then. Good to hear.
---- "I'm here to nunchuck and not wear helmets. And I'm all out of helmets." "I'll fight you on one condition. That you lower your nipples." " 'Tis a lie! Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!"
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| flightoficarus Stamp Tramp Posts: 1118  |
I received a hard copy in the mail of this and was highly confused. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
---- Daily underground metal recommendations at Metal Trenches. Watch metal content on the Metal Trenches YouTube Channel.
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| Enemy of Reality Account deleted |
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| DahliaRock Posts: 153  |
The score of this review feels like an endless nudge attack accompanied with an "ooh ooh hey ooh hey hey I love this band hey check them out hey holy shit hey listen hey will you listen please this is really good hey you're missing this look you'll really regret it".. I hope this really is the masterpiece you have promised with your score (please don't come to me with a "hey not everyone will like this album" diss) because I can't accept an official reviewer let their fandomism get the best of their non-biased judgement.. fingers crossed, diving in..
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| ScreamingSteelUS Editor-in-Chief Admin Posts: 6082  |
Written by DahliaRock on 19.04.2016 at 14:17 The problem, then, is that you have placed too much emphasis on the score. I admit that it's hard not to immediately fly to the score when it's a 9.8, which is obviously a bold statement, but that score can never be anything but wholly subjective. Only in the review itself can you find anything approaching objectivity, and if you have found a reviewer somewhere who actually displays "non-biased judgment," then I encourage you to comment here. You might be able to tell, either from this Slot review, my last Slot review, the Slot review before that, my album ratings, or the position of The SLoT in my list of favorite bands, that this is my favorite band. Reviewing your favorite band can be a very dangerous thing, because you may entirely lack the vocabulary to contextualize or critique the new album, and I admit that I have done better reviews before that contained more useful information about the albums in question. Still, what was I to do - not review the new album by my favorite band? I like my favorite band. Frankly, with the absurd number of 10s you've been shelling out, I'd be awfully surprised if you didn't love this album. Realistically, you won't like it as much as I do, but there's no way for me to avoid awarding it such a high rating (at least, not if I plan to be an honest reviewer) anymore than there is a way for readers to avoid being skeptical about or annoyed by that high rating.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6120  |
Written by DahliaRock on 19.04.2016 at 14:17 Hey, not everyone will like this album! But seriously. This review, like any other review is one man's opinion. The rating is that man's rating, and no one else's. Don't read too much into it. Listen and form your own opinion.
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| Bones222 Posts: 8  |
Read the review and instantly went and checked out this band... I consistently refer to Metal Storm for new releases and somewhat rely on reviewers to give a fair and broad appraisal of albums, being subjective is well and good but there is no way this album is at 9.8. I appreciate the reviewers opinion but surely your role here is to give realistic expectations to Metal Storm users? Just my two cents, but this album comes across as mediocre and borderline commercial at best...horns \m/!
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| Risto Wandering Midget Posts: 1116  |
Written by Bones222 on 20.04.2016 at 14:39 Nah, opinion's an opinion. One review on another site gave the new Dynazty album 9.5 and I turned it off after three tracks, so I can kind of relate 
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| Danny Thomas Posts: 552  |
Liked it, then the vocals came in; paused and processed. I'm really not sure how to take it yet. on track 4 and trying to give the entire album a chance before I bail or make judgement. It certainly appears that it is going to be hit or miss for a lot of people.
---- Our children are dead. Burnt in the ruins that were left by war.
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| Danny Thomas Posts: 552 |
Written by [user id=104220] on 17.04.2016 at 16:15 very good description with the otep/lacuna coil mix. it went back and forth between sounding like a decent anime soundtrack to even parts where I was like "if Mikael Stanne did the vocals, it would remind me of a dark tranquillity song" but then a few seconds later not at all. I'm having a hard time determining if I like this. there are sections of many of the songs that I very much enjoy, then other parts not so much. Sometimes I like the vocals and sometimes they turn me off. Maybe it's one of those "give it multiple listens and it will grow on you" type albums.
---- Our children are dead. Burnt in the ruins that were left by war.
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| DahliaRock Posts: 153 |
Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 19.04.2016 at 17:39 when you first arrive in metalstorm, the very first thing you see, right there on the top, is a list of albums, with a big score, jumping around to grab your attention. If the emphasis is not the score then the design should be changed and the numeric scores should be removed altogether. I do place a lot of emphasis on the score given by the official reviewers because I mostly have the time to skim, have discovered a lot of great bands just after seeing their score and the reviewer. So if a reviewer says it's shit, I skip that album altogether unless I see a good score on another publication I trust. So yes, score exists, hence does have an equal amount of importance as the written review. I am a huge fan of Porcupine Tree, for example, and it's oh so heartwarming to give their masterpieces straight 10s, but then I'm not reviewing an album or guiding the readers in the right direction, I'm just pointing out a pick (and I assume that's what the staff pick was implemented for). Unlike a lot of people (like, A LOT) I found too many flaws in the "Fear of a Blank Planet" no matter how brilliant the production is nor how sentimental the whole theme might be. Even if I reviewed my all time favorite, "In Absentia", I wouldn't dare give it a score like 9.8, no matter how big an impact it had on my life. That's not reviewing imho, that's just hollering to people who might be interested. Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 19.04.2016 at 17:39 really? was this lame comparison really necessary? I'm not going to resort to a "who are you to judge"-ish answer, but look.. I am not an writer or a reviewer on this site, I am part of the community. and it's not my duty to fine tune my ratings; I just take the albums that I genuinely love and with my upvote I poll in my opinion of what the album's worth is. It becomes an average of what other people think of it.. and that score becomes a guideline for those that dig into that album or band.. our score doesn't glow in the eye of the reader, reforming their opinion. I hope you're getting that I'm not opposing your score of having a band as a favorite, but your approach to the existing system in general. If other reviewers start to say "hey let's just give 10s or 0s" and act upon it, then the credibility of the reviews and the functionality of the website decreases amongst the community (not that anybody that can ever step in the boundaries of metalstorm can ever step out) and everything I'm saying is to make sure we keep the cogs intact.
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| ScreamingSteelUS Editor-in-Chief Admin Posts: 6082 |
Written by DahliaRock on 21.04.2016 at 16:34 The score is not unimportant, but neither is it the most important. "Hollering to people who might be interested" is, in fact, one of the main purposes of reviewing. You might even say that it's the only meaningful purpose of reviewing, since reviewing without intending to invite or warn potential listeners is nothing more than reviewing for the sake of reviewing. Reviewing for its own sake benefits only the reviewer, if even that, and maybe makes the band feel nice (or terrible). That is not to say that I have exaggerated my feelings about the album for the express purpose of attracting potential listeners, because I haven't, but neither would I restrain my feelings about an album out of fear that I was misrepresenting an album to readers. What would you have me do, anyway - not give this album the score that I feel it deserves? Rate the album based on how I expect other people will or should perceive it? Remove my personal opinion from the listening experience entirely and attempt to construct some "objective" score based on a system of criteria that are just as ultimately subjective as those criteria which I use in my own mind? The implications of trying to maintain some manufactured idea of credibility and objectivity in reviews are so complicated and absurd that the only course of action I deem proper is to be as honest about my reviews and ratings as possible.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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| ScreamingSteelUS Editor-in-Chief Admin Posts: 6082 |
Written by Danny Thomas on 21.04.2016 at 08:59 Those comparisons seem fairly apt to me. I'd be surprised if anyone else went as high as a 9.8, but, hey, 7 is a lot better than the reaction I got last time I reviewed a Slot album. There are certain aspects of the band that definitely took some getting used to for me, and even this album I had fairly mixed feelings about at first, but I do think the more you listen the more entrenched you become in the sound.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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| Danny Thomas Posts: 552 |
I will say this much. every time I was about to turn the album off, another part I found interesting came on, so I kept listening. I try to stay open minded and accept the fact that sometimes an artist whose sound you aren't quite acclimated to, often sounds better the more you listen. therefore, i will listen again tonight and see how i feel.
---- Our children are dead. Burnt in the ruins that were left by war.
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| Marcus Doit Like Bernie Posts: 642  |
Written by DahliaRock on 21.04.2016 at 16:34 Don't you think there's a chance that people saw the score, listened to a song (or the whole album) and thought "wow this is great, so happy I saw it on Metalstorm?" For his next review, SSUS should give the album a personalized score for every user one the site - that way everyone is happy.
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| Dr. Strawberry Posts: 698  |
Written by Bones222 on 20.04.2016 at 14:39 Never mind, the reviewer above said has got a lot of complaints recently. I'm considering to vote him as "The Most-Avoided Reviewer" of all time in the end of the year
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| ScreamingSteelUS Editor-in-Chief Admin Posts: 6082 |
Written by Dr. Strawberry on 27.04.2016 at 09:31 To be fair, some of those complaints were from you. Most of my recent complaints were due to the Babymetal review anyway, which would have attracted controversy no matter who reviewed it and how. I understand, of course, why people sometimes react to my reviews skeptically, and to be honest I have been wondering if I took the right course of action in this particular instance. I approached this review in a much different manner from usual - not because this is my favorite band, but because I had in mind just how poorly my review of their last album went over and how their ratings completely tanked as a result. I saw this review as a pretty defensive move in which I was refusing to bow to pressure to forego the rating or undersell the album, rather than a bold and aggressive statement characterized by unreasonable and outlandish claims meant to attract attention. I do see how easy it is to lose the distinction, especially without context, or how little a lot of people care about what my intent was. Still, that's why it's so important that I was only sharing my honest opinion without a hidden agenda.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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| pdepmcp Posts: 141  |
I do agree with DahliaRock. A vote of 9.8 is something like "one of the five best records in metal history" or so it sounds to MS users, something that you'd probably admire even if you're not into the band style. How can such a masterpiece have 8 in originality (and production)? The point anyway, IMHO, is not the vote itself, but the fact that some ScreamingSteelUS reviews seem to be on another scale of all other staff reviews on MS, both for very high and very low ratings. That's confusing. I'm a long time user and the result on me is: uh, SSUS wrote this, the vote is not "significant". PS: It's not against SSUS, of course, and it's not against his votes either. I just think that the staff should keep some consistency in their voting system.
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| Dr. Strawberry Posts: 698 |
Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 28.04.2016 at 23:53 Why not, if you're expressing your opinions honestly without hidden agenda. But...who knows ? 
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| Vyalikov Posts: 10  |
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| ivanz83 Posts: 8 |
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15303  |
Written by pdepmcp on 09.05.2016 at 16:45 late to the fray but have to chime in. I am not sure you agree with Dahlia. what you think means "one of the five best records in metal history" he think means 50% of records in metal history: 10 216 votes 9 134 votes 8 39 votes 7 10 votes 6 5 votes 5 1 vote 4 5 votes 3 1 vote 2 1 vote 1 1 vote There won't be consistency in staff scoring of albums in reviews because, just like our users, we all have different tastes and ways of rating. Music, and the interpretation and appreciation thereof is a unique experience to the user. While Marcel and I might agree about a lot of albums, ultimately we still both process them differently. SSUS and I vary significantly in probably more cases than not. But I respect his opinion and the way he states it. For you to say his rating of the album is wrong is no different than me telling you your scoring of the dreadful "Swansong" by Carcass a 10 is wrong. No matter how much I despise that album, no words I type are likely to diminish or alter your feelings towards that piece. Just like SSUS feels strongly about this album even though you clearly didn't get the same experience. Individual Mileage Will Vary.
---- 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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| pdepmcp Posts: 141 |
Written by BitterCOld on 28.02.2017 at 23:58 Of course there is personal taste. But what is rated by a reviewer is supposed to be somehow more from the mind than from the guts. Looks like you're confusing reviews rating with user ratings. I would not review Swansong with a 10, because I know I like that kind of music, I am a huge Carcass fan and that record has a meaning to me that...is just to me. I know by myself that I'm not objective on that (I still think that it's a 10, from my own point of view). As a user, my vote goes in a great pile and is counted as just a single voice in a mass. Staff reviews are different. Just to take it on numbers, like you did: to find another staff review as high as this one, you need to go back to december 2013, when the same reviewer gave to the same band...the same vote. So the SLot made the two most highly voted albums of the last 40 months, according to staff reviews. Maybe 1 of the 5 best in history is hyperbolic, but at in the top 1% is probably not, according to staff reviews. I'm not questioning the reviewer tastes, I'm just saying that this is, somehow, misleading. Maybe SLot is the best band ever and I'll fall in love at the second attempt (the first failed...). That's not the point too. Numbers have meaning if there is some sort of rule (even of the thumb) to read them. No problem, and no offence intended. Just numbers.
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| black6150smith Posts: 3 |
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