Artist: Sectu
Title: Inundate
Type: Album
Label: Vicisolum

Sectu are Swedish. They are also death metal. Now, at this point, I expect you may be expecting some saccharine approximation of the over worn melodic death metal plague, or maybe some variation on the “raging death / thrash” trajectory. Nope, kids. This is extreme, technical progressive death metal, and all the better for it.

It’s not all that easy to produce listenable death metal that actually holds the interest. Maybe it’s a sign that as an amateur critic, I’ve been over exposed to the hordes of average death metal bands that are out there. While I’ve waxed lyrical on this point on these hallowed pages before, the main issue is that there just aren’t any bad death metal bands recording out there any more. Nope, thanks to the wonders of modern technology available at reasonably affordable prices, it’s almost possible to be a sonic turd-polisher on a mass scale. Even the least inspired bands can come up to muster thanks to a shiny, punchy production. What can’t be polished though, is lack of creative spark. A boring song, even with the best production in the world is still a boring song.

Inundate is not a boring album. It also doesn’t lack in the creativity department. This isn’t necessarily an easy listening experience. That in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. Since when did we start expecting our death metal to have nice easy hooks to latch on to, to be able to nod our heads along lazily to another dub-Dismember gallop? This here platter contains enough dizzying guitar passages, adeptly played, to induce fully blown vertigo at a hundred paces. With a surgical, production job, it’s down to the music itself to produce the all important atmosphere. Inundate is full of full on dread, oppression and madness, just how grandma used to bake ‘em. Take “Storms”, for example. A slightly discordant, unsettlingly off kilter track that manages to somehow marry the madness and insanity of vintage Morbid Angel with the Terminator-esque killing perfection of prime Decapitated. This technical prowess is evident in every facet of the album, from the hugely impressive guitar theatrics of the improbably named Angel Dominguez, to the polyrhythmic skin-bashing of Mr Backstrom. Will you have to work hard to get your head around this album Absolutely; but then nothing of value ever comes easily. An unexpected gem then, this album, which sits nicely alongside the current leaders of the genre, Nile and Behemoth, and certainly shows up the new Morbid Angel like a group of arrogant upstarts. Viva arrogance.

http://www.myspace.com/sectu

Chris Davison

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