The Great Mass
Not metal with string decoration but death metal composed around a real orchestra — the album every symphonic wannabe since 2011 has had to be measured against.
Orchestras in metal are usually a lie. A few string samples over the guitar track and there's your "symphonic" record. Septicflesh do it the other way round — and that is precisely the difference between "The Great Mass" and the rest of the genre.
Nothing here was decorated; it was composed. Christos Antoniou, a trained composer by day, wrote the orchestral parts for the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and a 32-piece choir — and wrote them so they hold up even if you mentally remove the guitars. You hear it right at the top: "The Vampire From Nazareth" opens with brass that doesn't colour in a mood but states the theme; the band joins it, not the reverse.
What emerges is a strange, entirely distinctive weight. "A Great Mass Of Death" grinds rather than races. "Pyramid God" is the earworm that even people who avoid death metal find themselves nodding along to. And Spiros Antoniou growls beneath it with a depth you perceive as a foundation rather than a vocal performance.
The price is the mix. Where orchestra and band fight over the same frequency range, the bass almost always loses, and the guitars sound flatter in places than they should — anyone wanting to hear this as a pure death metal album will find it too soft. And if orchestral grandeur simply isn't for you, don't even start.
Give it room, though, and you get one of the few albums where the word "symphonic" is craft rather than marketing. With ARTE putting the band's full Hellfest set online, there is no better excuse to play this loud again.
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Strengths
- +A real orchestra, genuinely composed — not a string sample as decoration
- +The brass states the theme and the band follows: an inverted hierarchy
- +"Pyramid God" — an earworm that catches even death metal sceptics
- +Spiros Antoniou's growls as foundation, not effect
Weaknesses
- −The mix: orchestra and band fight over the same frequencies — the bass loses
- −Taken as a pure death metal album, it feels too soft
- −If you fundamentally distrust orchestral grandeur, there is no way in
Verdict
The benchmark of symphonic death metal: monumental, cinematic and beyond reproach as craft. Only the mix pays a price for letting two sonic worlds share equal billing. Grand cinema — in the best sense.