Septic Mind - The Beginning (Начало) (CD)

Review
Evilized

Mit seinen riesigen Wäldern und endlosen Steppen, in denen klirrende Kälte und beklemmende Einsamkeit die einzigen Weggefährten auf langen Reisen sind, scheint Russland als kleine Welt für sich alleine zu existieren. Doch noch bevor sich die kargen und unwirtlichen Landschaften vollends entfalten und ihre eisige Herrschaft antreten, findet sich unweit der Metropole Moskau die Stadt Tver. Gegen Ende des letzten Jahres verließ eben diesen Ort ein auf den Namen “Начало” getauftes musikalische Werk, auf dem die Isolation und Rauheit der russischen Weiten mit düsteren Klängen vertont wurden. SEPTIC MIND nennt sich das kreative Duo, das mit “THE BEGINNING”, so der englische Titel der Platte, bereits sein zweites Full-Length Album seit der Gründung im Jahre 2006 vorlegt.

Dominante Läufe eines verzerrten Tieftöners und ein minimalistisch bedientes Schlagzeug

SEPTIC MIND präsentieren mit ihrem aktuellen Output Funeral Doom Metal, wie er roher und ursprünglicher kaum dargeboten werden kann. Dominante Läufe eines verzerrten Tieftöners und ein minimalistisch bedientes Schlagzeug bilden das stabile Fundament der drei überlangen Kompositionen, die zusammen eine Spielzeit von über 60 Minuten ergeben. Zähe Gitarrenriffs legen sich drückend über diesen dichten und schweren Klangteppich, der nur über geringe Variationsmuster verfügt. Unterbrochen werden die eingängigen und monotonen Rhythmuspassagen immer wieder von mit Effekten unterlegten Gitarrenspuren und Synthesizern. Die futuristisch anmutenden Sounds erfüllen “THE BEGINNING” mit einer bedrohlich dunklen und sehr intensiven Stimmung. Selbst einfache Geräuschkulissen, die ohne einen Zusatz von instrumentaler Arbeit eingesetzt werden, dienen der russischen Formation als Stilmittel. Zeigt sich der Hörer geduldig, so wird er bei “THE MISLEADING” nach einem minutenlangen Surren und Pfeifen schließlich mit hymnischen, aus diesem Chaos emporsteigenden Melodien belohnt. Genregerecht legt sich der in der Landessprache vorgetragene Gesang spärlich und gleich einem tiefen Donnergrollen über die epischen Stücke.

SEPTIC MIND erweisen sich als durchaus professionelle Arbeiter ihrer Zunft und legen mit “THE BEGINNING” eine mehr als solide Veröffentlichung vor. Wer auf der Suche nach der richtigen Untermalung für nächtliche Autofahrten oder Zugreisen ist, wird mit diesem Album bestens bedient.

Author: Urlraft

Review
Antichrist zine 11/2011
6/10

Four years old band from Russia has recorded its second full-length album and ready to show what they worth on the scene. Just three tracks (around 20 minutes each) of funeral doom metal and ambient. The music is typical and with no any extraordinary sound, all made in regular way – slow, full of sorrowfull, guitars, slow measured rhythms and atmosphere of total solitude. Comes with ESOTERIC influences they made also some noisy experiments, which bring them yet obscure attitude, and sounds apocalyptic. As for me, this album is right thing for fans of deep, pressing and atmospheric funeral doom metal.

Review
Mtuk Metal Zine

A concept album on the cold infinite cosmos? This has to be a funeral doom band. No other genre could evoke that feeling and Russia’s Septic Mind know that. After making their debut at Doom Festival V, these devotees of Esoteric have big ideas to express. What’s more is that ‘The Beginning’ is a remastered version of the band’s demo!

The album starts, aptly enough, with ‘The Beginning’ which utilises the big slow guitar riffs under some fancier more experimental sounds for an almost space rock feel that comfortably breaks the twenty-minute mark in length. ‘The Misleading’ is another epic listening challenge with its long, slow intro that descends into a meandering and trippy prog ode to the universe. The final track on the album ‘The Ones Who Left This World’ however, is so crushingly heavy and bleak it sounds like setting the controls of a ship for the event horizon of a black hole.

Septic Mind have crafted a fine little album here that manages to really hook the listener with flourishes of experimentation. The only downside to the album is the rather rough production that does make it sound a little flat at times. But for a remastered demo it actually sounds pretty damn good.

Author: Sean M. Palfrey

Review
Doom Mantia
7/10
12.02.2011

This is not the début album from Septic Mind as some sites are claiming but their second release but in some ways it is their first real album in terms of quality. The début release, "Ñêîðáü" wasn't a good album at all in my opinion but this album is massive step forward so the album title, The Beginning seems appropriate. The music of Septic Mind is claustrophobic funeral doom, the kind of doom-metal that weighs you down just in the sheer thickness of sound and in the depths of harrowing emotion. This is the kind of album that doom-metal haters especially hate as there is nothing within the music saying 'lets get together and have a good time' - this puts out the feeling of total despair, depression and isolation. I don't know too much about this Russian band except it is made up of just two guys, Michael Nagiev - vocals, bass, drums and Alexander Grigoryev on guitars and this album comes from the Solitude Production stable of bands. I know for some people that will send out a warning signal but this is one of the better releases from that label. There is still no big surprises, most of the album is typical of Russian funeral doom but it is mostly good but it has got some very irritating moments along its 3 track journey.

The 3 tracks play out almost like 3 chapters in a very depressing long-winded novel with each piece having its own unique characters. The three tracks are of course very long, ranging from 18 to 22 minutes so if you get bored easily with music, you might want to stay clear of this. The opening piece, "The Beginning" starts off with down-tuned distorted guitars and an overwhelming amount of reverb, flanger (or is it a phaser?) and echo effects. The first few minutes is not that interesting but at around 6 minutes comes a tempo change and the guitar begins some seriously heavy chugging and this is about as catchy as Septic Mind gets on the entire album. The track wanders aimlessly for the most part as some of the sections seem to carry on too long with not enough variation to keep it mesmerizing but it does have a great atmosphere and this is very intense funeral doom. The track ends much the same way it started, more distorted riffing but this time with keyboards and double-kick drums pulverizing the listener to its last notes. In terms of bleakness, the track is very effective but it would have had more of an impact on me if it was cut in half and lost some of the meaningless padding.

The second track, "The Misleading" begins with more wasted space with a 5 or more minutes of samples, synth-work, computer beeps and background noises that really don't do nothing for the what you will hear later in the song. If you can sit through all of that, you are eventually rewarded with a killer riff that is very much in a stoner-doom mode and very Black Sabbath influenced it sounds like. It gets into a repetitive, hypnotic, psychedelic vibe for a while before switching back to total funeral doom mode once again. The track features a lot of samples and ambient elements which work sometimes and other times sounds out-of-place. "The Misleading" eventually turns into another depressing funeral doom onslaught for its remaining 6 or 7 minutes and this last section of the song is a highlight of the album. The last track is titled "The Ones Who Left This World" and this one rambles on for over 21 minutes so if you were bored by the earlier tracks, you better quit listening now.

"The Ones Who Left The World" is a somewhat odd combination of space-rock sounds and funeral doom self-indulgence that is very engaging if you are in the right mood. It has more distorted guitar rhythms with lead guitar that has a piecing sound that floats over the top of everything else but it is mixed in a strange way like it is distant or like it was recorded in outer-space somewhere. The problem with this track is typical of the entire album - too much padding. You have to get through 15 minutes of a building arrangement before anything drastically changes. I do like the track but they stretch ideas out way too much. Sections of repetitive synth loops and different samples go on and on, panning left and right and the heartbeat effect they use is effective for a few seconds and then can become very irritating. Again the atmosphere is chilling and engaging but you need to be very patient to appreciate this so I can't see too many people sitting through the entire album, too often. At one track at a time, it is very good but an hour of this can be very challenging to get through.

Despite the album's flaws and monotonous padding of its songs, this band has incredible potential to be a force in the funeral doom scene. There is some great riffs and crushing atmosphere to be enjoyed if you can put up with the albums passages of irritating samples and effects. What is interesting about this is I never notice the vocals at all, somehow they seem almost like another sample of effect they have just tacked on for the hell of it. There isn't much vocal on the album anyway and in fact, the "The Misleading" doesn't feature any sort of vocals till the song is almost over and done with. This is certainly an album that needs to be sampled before buying as I can't simply recommend this album outright - try before you buy and buyer beware is my message here. It is intriguing and a good slab of bleak funeral-doom with some odd side-elements that are very unique and it is good to hear something like this coming from Solitude Productions so do check it out.

Author: Ed

Review
The Pit of the Damned
7/10
20.03.2011

Se pensate che recensire 3 tracce possa essere una passeggiata, beh non vi siete mai trovati a dover fronteggiare un lavoro come quello dei russi Septic Mind, dove il minutaggio medio si aggira malauguratamente sui 20 minuti, non proprio facili da digerire. Il lungo trittico si apre con la lugubre title track: 20 minuti in cui l’angoscia più profonda si impossessa da subito della nostra anima avvolgendola come una strisciante nebbia potrebbe ingoiare una città. Pesantezza è la parola d’ordine del combo di Tver, che con questo “The Beginning” giunge al secondo lavoro dopo il debutto autoprodotto del 2008, ma non solo la pesantezza la fa da padrone qui perché l’etichette che gli si potrebbero appiccicare sono tra le più disparate se rimaniamo in territori di negatività assoluta: disperazione, tristezza, sconforto totale e autodistruzione sono solo alcuni degli aggettivi affibbiabili a questa affascinante release. Potrei andare avanti aggiungendo claustrofobia, rassegnazione e disorientamento chiudendo qui la mia recensione, perché tale è lo sgomento fomentato dai suoni malsani provenienti dal duo composto da Michael e Alexander. E la Solitude Production, che con queste sonorità ci va giustamente a nozze, ha pensato bene di assoldare l’ennesima band di funeral doom nel suo rooster e rilasciare un album che è destinato a lasciare una breccia solo nel cuore di una ristrettissima ed elitaria schiera di metal fan. Eh si perché le sonorità cosi pachidermiche, ridondanti e ipnotiche contenute in queste tre tracce, sono veramente destinate a pochi intimi. Tuttavia il giudizio per l’act russo, che trae sicuramente ispirazione dal sound degli inglesi Esoteric, è più che positivo. Certo “The Beginning” non è un cd che si può ascoltare ovunque, in macchina è sicuramente sconsigliato a meno che non abbiate tendenze suicide, ma sicuramente se aveste voglia di rilassarvi su un letto con un bel paio di cuffie nelle orecchie, credo che la corposità dei suoni ivi contenuti, possa eccitare non poco le vostre sinapsi cerebrali. Le atmosfere create dai lunghi loop chitarristici del buon Sasha di sicuro turberanno i vostri sonni fin qui tranquilli; la seconda “The Misleading” vi ipnotizzerà con i suoi irrequieti inserti noise (che costituiscono i primi 6 minuti della traccia!!), anche se poi i rimanenti 12 minuti malinconici (per non dire strappa lacrime) non siano quanto più semplice da ascoltare. Del growling profondo di Michael qui troverete un’esigua presenza, quasi a donare un tocco di “sacralità” alla canzone. Capisco perfettamente che sacralità e growling non vadano proprio a braccetto però vi garantisco che in questo contesto la cosa risulta calzante. Con i conclusivi 22 minuti di “The Ones Who Left This World” (Allegria!!!) i lenti cingoli del panzer Septic Mind sono pronti a darci il colpo di grazia. La song è ancora più cupa delle precedenti e dire che pensavo di aver toccato il fondo dell’abisso fin da subito, ma qui i nostri superano se stessi e con suoni che vanno ben oltre alla definizione di funeral, ci ammorbano fino a portarci alla disperazione eterna. Buon lavoro per il sottoscritto, peccato solo sia di difficile fruibilità per tutti, sicuramente un ascolto lo merita per la curiosità di capire di capire se esistono davvero dei limiti nella musica o se, giunti sul fondo del precipizio, dobbiamo essere pronti a scavare…

Author: Francesco Scarci