adg211288 Scourge of the Formless Breed (2014) is the third full-length album by Italian technical brutal death metal act Septycal Gorge. The album marks the group's return to the metal scene after a five year break between releases. Since Erase the Insignificant (2009) was released Septycal Gorge have parted with their bassist and are currently operating as a four-piece with the bass handled on Scourge of the Formless Breed by a session musician.

Scourge of the Formless Breed is a concept album on the topic on cosmogony (the theory of the coming into existence of the cosmos or universe) and the nine track album is split equally into three chapters entitled Protogenesis, Rebellion and Obliteration respectively. It's obvious from this subject matter that Septycal Gorge wants to be something a bit more in the brutal death metal scene than just another gore themed act, which is an impression I get from some of their earlier song titles which feature names such as Deformed Heretic Impalement, Redneck Slanderous Mutation and Poisoned Human Flesh. Unfortunately as is often the case with the most extreme of metal styles the growling vocals used on Scourge of the Formless Breed are very much indiscernible to my ears so no matter how complex or clever a concept Septycal Gorge have come up with here it's like the musical equivalent of being lost in translation.

Fortunately for Septycal Gorge on the other hand they do at least have a pretty solid death metal offering here. While said growls are difficult to follow frontman Mariano Somá more or less sticks to a very deep style and does feel the need to vary it with irritations such as pig squeals (which are an instant turn-off for me). The musicianship is pretty solid too featuring a strong technical edge on the brutal death metal sound that quite often puts me in mind of what Septycal Gorge's countrymen Hour of Penance did on their album Sedition (2012). I don't want to use the term clone act here because let's face it, it's a rare death metal act that really stands out from the crowd these days and on Scourge of the Formless Breed Septycal Gorge have an album that holds my attention all the way through and that's probably something only one in five death metal albums can do. The rather short running time of about 32 minutes no doubt helps on that front. It's a duration that feels ideal for this sort of music.

While I would like to be able to dig deeper into the concept the band have got going here, on a purely musical front this is a pretty great from Septycal Gorge and I see no reason to deny Scourge of the Formless Breed a four star rating.

79/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/septycal-gorge-scourge-of-the-formless-breed-t3723.html)