Each and every penny was worth it in my opinion. SepticFlesh and their label must have spent a fortune creating this considering the quality of production and orchestration. When ‘Therianthrophy’ ends the album I can’t help feel pondering over what a brilliant thoughtful album the Greeks have created. ‘Apocalypse’ and ‘Mad Architect’ revert back to the pattern in the first part of the album casting an ominous atmosphere over the listener. On a lighter note, this can be one of those motivational songs for sports teams. ‘Rising’, a rather simplistic song imbibes traditional melodic death metal and creates a soaring atmosphere. ‘Oceans of Grey’ tends to relax the intensity a little bit but make no mistake, it is no filler. For example, with ‘Pyramid God’, one is able to link the material to something familiar experienced before and I’m sure we all have had our dosages of Egypt (in metal or literature) at some point or the other in our lives. On that note it’s worth mentioning that the orchestrations play a very powerful role in conjuring images in the mind. ‘Pyramid God’ immediately transports the listener to a fictional world where a man nearing insanity is lost in his dreams searching for the god he truly he wants to see.

They are so well placed in each of the songs that they never appear to the out of sync. I just want to reiterate that the orchestrations are truly out of this world. ‘The Great Mass of Death’ continues the journey alternating between brutal and epic melodic passages. This is what the album is all about and much more. In between the song, the additions of melancholic melodic passages give the song another flavor. The album introduces itself with ‘The Vampire of Nazareth’, which starts off with a menacingly orchestrated intro and then opens up with a flurry of blasting drums and riffs. In addition to these, if one considers the lyrics and the artwork, the album has got all its bases covered. Sprinkle in some well placed clean vocals (including some female backing vocals) with Spiros Antoniou’s harsh vocals dominating the proceedings, the result is something rather brilliant. Each element gives each other ample space to reveal itself. The band includes blast beats that closely resembles the Polish death metal sound in general, but with a twist that being spacious atmospheric orchestrations moving in tandem with the underlying brutality. The Great Mass is definitely a step up from their previous album ‘Communion’ which was great too. SepticFlesh have been creating masterworks around this since the early 90s with a great discography that few bands in related genres can claim of in their careers. The “atmospheric/symphonic death metal” genre might make you scratch your head.

Septicflesh the great mass rar