Artist: Septicflesh
Title: Ophidian Wheel (Re-Release)
Genre: Gothic/ Symphonic/ Melodic Death Metal
Release Date: 25th October 2013
Label: Season Of Mist
Review Flash
There are many wonderful things about Greece; amongst its positives I count bands as ROTTING CHRIST and SEPTICFLESH. The latter band is a subject of this review with its re-released third album. ‘Obsidian Wheel’ reaches out from the Melodic Death Metal roots to Gothic Metal of PARADISE LOST’s 'Gothic' era’s extraction. It was released in 1997 and featured Natalie Rassoulis as the female vocal. The re-release except re-mastered tracks contains three previously unreleased alternative mixes (the last three songs on the LP). The album certainly demonstrates this band’s versatility quite well. It also shows them at a lighter edge of their darkness and though it still conveys their great knack of connecting darker shades of Metal to classical music especially when it comes to fifth song ‘Tartarus’ or ‘Microcosmos’ this element is pushed into background in majority of the album. Of course his is judging them back to front, but that’s a good thing about re-releases – a look back into band’s history and hearing its musical evolution from a vantage point.
Conclusion: ‘Obsidian Wheel’ is a great album to re-discover their earlier work for old fans or discover them for younger audience for whom this tack (of bigger accessibility) can be pretty seductive to draw them into a more complex waters these guys delve into as they did for example in ‘The Great Mass’ or ‘Communion’.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
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