Septicflesh – Esoptron
Don’t let the different cover art fool you into thinking this is a new 2013 Septicflesh release, rather Season of Mist continue to trip back in time into this Greek institutions earlier workings for an updated and more widely available reissue. For folks like me who missed out on the original somehow, this practice is a good thing and once you hear the inspired deathly tones of this band, the timelessness of it all will also turn you into a believer.
Where Mystic Places of Dawn stood as an amazing dose of murky and melodically gifted death metal, Esoptron found the band progressing quite a bit in the course of one year, though not losing the muse for upholding their roots. Esoptron is a dreary opus of melancholic doom rich with synth accompaniment to heap on the misery while wounded guitar harmonies weep over the procession in a demonstrative crawl. In a lot of ways, this era of Septicflesh feels heavily influenced by Paradise Lost’s amazing Gothic album, though SF have taken a less romantic path in their doom affinity than the bulk of the UK doom scene did. If anything, they kept it authentically miserable while progressing within their songwriting talent and ideas with bold orchestration, bringing in more clean singing and making synths even more vital a part of the equation without losing that beaten down metal hopelessness. Of course this may all have changed on future albums, but I cannot report on that as I have yet to hear them. I feel content to drift back and experience the origin and growth of this band thanks to SoM and take any sort of deviation from the death/doom metal formula Septicfleash so expertly commanded as it comes so not to be too jarring of a transition to the modern side.
Along with the new design/cover art, Esoptron 2013 features 3 bonus tracks. 2 live songs and the studio track, “Woman of the Rings” to add a bit of allure to those of you collectors out there that likely own copies of the original release and want to have everything. Good marketing ploy for sure and good for the fans as well. Esoptron is effective cold and dreary weather music that finds me wanting the clouds to gather and remain. -Marty
Season of Mist
Worm Gear 
Ah… I figured this would be a black metal band, guess not. So far for my Greek BM 101 then…