Artist: Septicflesh
Country: Greece
Label: Nuclear Blast
Formats: 12″ EP
Year: 2025
In the running up to Septicflesh’s new album, that should appear somewhere in the next couple of months, the Greek masters of bombastic metal presents us with an appetizer in the form of this 12” EP. ‘Amphibians’ is just what an EP usually was back in the 90’s, a tried and tested concept: one or two new tracks embellished with some remixes, live recordings or covers. In this particular case it is two new tracks and two “Orchestral Versions”. Maybe not enough new music for everybody to directly stampede to the Nuclear Blast webshop, but Septicflesh wouldn’t be Septicflesh if they weren’t going to treat you on some quality work.
The opening title track, ‘Amphibians’, is a song that faithfully and proudly continues the path that the band took some fifteen years ago and feels closely related to ‘Modern Primitive’, the band’s last full-length album from 2022. Maybe not all of the albums released during Septicflesh’s second era (everything since 2008’s ‘Communion’) are equally essential, with especially ‘Titan’ (2014) being slightly disappointing, but the overall quality and professionalism of the band is downright stunning. Personal favourite of the “later” albums is the aforementioned ‘Communion’, a record that marked the grand return of one of the most special bands ever to come out of the Greek scene.
And, frankly, the two new tracks, ‘Amphibians’ and ‘The Experiment’, feel very much like a great balancing act between the fresh energy of ‘Communion’ with the increasingly sophisticated bombast that the band portrayed on the last couple of albums. Usually guitarist Christos Antoniou gets the most credits for Septicflesh’s music as he is the man with a degree in classical music, but with each new album it seems the band is getting tighter and more well-versed in their own special craft – in the end, currently there is no band like Septicflesh. The core of the “old” Septicflesh is still together and have been playing music together for 35 years, and that shows.
Even more so when the music gets more complex and challenging for the involved composers and musicians. The rich orchestrations, the dazzling dynamics and the playful interplay between muscular metal with lots of filmic grandeur and classic Greek Folk makes every new release by Septicflesh something to look forward to. At least, if you are capable of enjoying a bit of slick and well-produced metal that really is as much Death Metal as Black Metal as just… Metal?
The two extra tracks are orchestrated tracks. The first one, ‘History Repeat Itself’ is not a new song, although with a new title and a refreshed musical guise, it is basically ‘Neuromancer’ that already appeared on ‘Modern Primitive’. The closing track is an even more orchestrated version of the already rather bombastic ‘The Experiment’, one of the new songs of this EP. The difference between the original and the reworked versions is not equally as big for both of them and I can imagine that the added value of these songs is not the same for everyone, but they clearly show how talented these musicians are. As a whole, with or without the last two tracks, ‘Amphibians’ serves its purpose and warms up the crowd for what is yet to come from the band’s twelfth album.
