Septicflesh – Modern Primitive (Review)

Septicflesh, (Septic Flesh?), are a symphonic death metal band from Greece and this is their eleventh album.

Following on from 2017’s Codex Omega, Modern Primitives is another devastatingly effective slab of dark grandeur from the band. Across 39 minutes Septicflesh once again demonstrate that very few bands can compete with them when it comes to symphonic death metal. As a style, I’m not a huge fan of it in general, but there are a handful of exceptions to this, and Septicflesh are pretty much the biggest one of these.

The songs on Modern Primitive have been very well-crafted by a professional and creative band that know exactly how to write this sort of dark heaviness. Catchy without being trite, anthemic without lacking depth, and aggressive without ignoring songcraft, these songs are massive, entertaining, and impressively executed.

The orchestra that sits behind the core metallic heaviness is as grandiose and as powerful as ever. This aspect of the band’s music is completely embedded into each song, and is frequently the sophisticated counterpoint to the brutality of the rest of the material. When it merges seamlessly with riffs that are the size of houses and the deep growls, it can be something quite special. Septicflesh’s use of textured orchestration is a credit to the band’s skills as artists.

Septicflesh’s thundering extreme metal is epic and colossal in scope. It sounds absolutely huge and combines exemplary songwriting skills with professional performances to an enviable extent. If you are a fan of the band’s last few albums then there’s no reason you shouldn’t thoroughly enjoy Modern Primitives.

Very highly recommended.