This is the third album from Russia’s doomy and heavily atmosphere orientated Septic Mind. This one, whose titles I’ve anglicised from their Cyrillic version, studies “the problems of insanity in modern society and apocalyptic expectations”.
Deep and deathly tones resound and never go away. The richness comes from the steady but melancholic guitar line. Echoing and growling vocals add to the power. The music is expansive but progresses. There’s a tiny suggestion of electro, and a greater suggestion of jazz as the beat thumps on heavily in the background. The pattern is hypnotic but with impressive use of sounds and variations, this is interesting. The opening track ends with cosmic sounds as if earth is being contacted. An expanse of a different kind follows. “Blizost’ Kontakta” patiently creates a world with a vast vista. It’s bleak and monotonous to the point of threatening inertia but growly vocals and desperate screams come in and give way to a deep and echoing hollow. This track presses on like a film score. It’s progressive in its oscillations but smooth and full of motion. “Genocide” is dark, shadowy and dangerous as one might expect from the title. The drum pattern is uncompromising. Cosmic waves peer through the expressively grim scene. Then it’s more menacing in its slow and repetitive progression, supported by throaty growls. The structure becomes monolithic but a piano intervenes. The monotonous thump continues as “Genocide” spreads out coldly and darkly. There’s a war-like quality. This isn’t for the faint hearted or the weak. Scenes of suffering are evoked (and I thought this, by the way, is before I knew what the track title meant). The track ends in the uncompromising and deathly fashion that has engulfed it from the beginning. “Na Peroge Peromen” conveys portents of doom with a distinctly downwards pattern, accompanied by fizzing sounds and deep growls. Septic Mind plant us in doom-like sadness. As ever the background musical wall suggests despair and sadness. Of course it’s vast. The ponderous chords and lengthy screams serve to keep us in our miserable place. The track takes off in another direction but as ever it’s another monstrously harsh and cold place. This is the world of Septic Mind.
These four substantial slabs that make up “Rab” can be monotonous but they’re rarely grey and are always both purposeful and incisive. This album contains many interesting representations of powerful heavy doom.
(7.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
https://www.facebook.com/SepticMind
http://solitude-prod.com/blog/lang/eng/2014/10/sp-091-14-septic-mind-rab
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