Review: Mystic Places of Dawn by Greek Death Metal Band Septic Flesh

Septic Flesh is a longtime death metal band from the city of Athens and they were formed back in 1990. I decided to start trying to cover Greek metal bands because I feel like they don’t get enough exposure. Greece is pretty decent for black metal and darker metal bands for example Rotting Christ is one of them. But for the purposes of this review we are discussing the band Septic Flesh (known as Septicflesh) since 2007.

Interestingly enough, the first part of the band’s name septic refers to a wound because of a body part being infected with bacteria or it refers to a drainage system such as a septic tank. Regardless of that, I’ve just gotten into this band as of July 2018 after a brief listen to their songs several months ago.

Mystic Places of Dawn, the song starts out with riffing that is similar to early Dark Tranquillity such as the album Of Chaos and Eternal Night. The style is doom and death metal but the atmosphere and feel is not as melancholic as Tristania for instance.

However unlike the debut album of the band Sentenced, Mystic Places of Dawn does not have the harsh vocals of Taneli Jarva and the music is slower in terms of the pace. The vocals are highly guttural and there are other growls mixed in similar to the band Noumena. As the first song comes to a close, some of you may wonder and say that it came to an end so soon as you were enjoying it. In my experience the first 6 minutes of this album can fly by pretty quickly.

Pale Beauty of the Past is a song that briefly addresses that the best things in life are the things that we don’t have yet and still we hope for them. It is said that hoping for things is a way that you express doubt. It is better to believe that you deserve the things that you want to manifest. The piano part makes this song more exotic as the music turns to a solid riffing section. There is also a sort of dual guitar sound that reminds me of the band Cynic because Cynic would use this sort of sound in their 1993 album Focus. Return to Carthage is a song that tries lyrically to recreate the story of how that city was sacked and burned in ancient times. The drumming is more ferocious than ever as a melodic solo kicks in! Is this album a masterpiece so far? That is tough to say only three songs in. Throughout history, those leaders that have tried to usurp personal power to suit their own interests have eventually succumbed to defeat, abdication or death. Sometimes what is deemed to be a noble cause can end up being counterproductive?

Crescent Moon has an atmospheric feel to it as the doom death riffing begins to dominate this early section. Chasing the Chimera is a song about a person whose mood changes unexpectedly just like the weather. His search for happiness is never enough as his inner pain and turmoil grows. Happiness is not something to be searched for but it is something that all of us must learn how to cultivate. The Underwater Garden might as well be a song about what happens to a person’s life when thoughts of gloom, sorrow or melancholy arise. When this happens, we are trapped in an underwater garden of emotions so the song is philosophical in nature. Behind the Iron Mask with its fierce drumming and heavy guttural growls reminds me of Spanish death metal band Avulsed.

(Morpheus) the Dreamlord is a song about a man that imagined sailing in a sea of lethargic thoughts when seemingly out of nowhere a big chunk of land appears. As a beautiful acoustic interlude comes out playing, this section has the potential to bring up your vibration as it has done mine! Morpheus comes out of nowhere with his voice and encourages the man to taste what he calls the fruit of knowledge and to drink the juice of wisdom. If there was a juice of wisdom that could make people wiser we would have a much better world. Mystic Places of Dawn is a great atmospheric doom/death metal kind of album from this longtime Greek band and may people around the world see the talent of Septicflesh!