CoC : Septicemia - Hopeless Age : Review

Septicemia - _Hopeless Age_
(Independent, 2001)
by: Pedro Azevedo (6.5 out of 10)

These unsigned Austrians seem keen to show us that they are capable of playing various styles of metal on _Hopeless Age_, sewing them together as songs. They can lean towards death metal, change to something more blackened, and then go into a slower, doomier section -- and they keep occasionally shifting back and forth throughout the record. Overall they do so reasonably well, even though -- as one might expect -- some passages work a lot better than others. Generally, Septicemia do not really overdo it and manage to keep things fairly consistent. Despite their unsigned status, Septicemia are a tight and competent band -- in fact, this is not a demo tape, but rather a 49 minute long album. The production is average: it carries some hiss and not every track was recorded at the same volume level, but it does get the point across reasonably well. Septicemia tend to fare better during the faster passages, where they often show some good guitar work, but even though there aren't any really bad sections, quality does vary significantly throughout the record. They do need to weed out the weaker elements in their music -- which of course isn't to say that they should forget about variety. Still, this debut disc is worth a listen and may well get them some decent label support for the future.

Contact: http://www.septicemia.start.at

(article published 14/1/2002)