Review by Carl on June 21, 2023.

It's been a while since I've heard a decent old school goregrind band, so this little offering of offal is more than welcome on these shores!

This stuff is banging! Septage take their cues from the early works of General Surgery, Hemdale, Regurgitate and Carcass, with added elements from death metal bands such as Carnage (SWE), early Grave, Autopsy and "Altars..." era Morbid Angel. The distorted vocals have that sickly early goregrind angle to them, and these fit in excellent with the varied songs. Blast beat mayhem is the norm, establishing a vortex of controlled chaos, but the foot does go on the brakes at times as well. It is in these parts that the Swedish death metal angle creeps up to the front, both in riffs and guitar sound, establishing a great, putrid atmosphere that fits in well with the fast sections. The great Trey Azagthoth-style leads put the finishing touch to this grissly chunk of aural rot, neatly completing this picture of delicious gory fun.

The production fits proceedings like a rubber glove about to probe your rectum. Powerful and clear, but not overproduced, the soundmix keeps it all on the natural side of things, without deteriorating into mush. All instrumentation is in balance, with the great guitar work solidly underpinned by the spot-on percussion, and the growling pitch vocals on top. The back up growls take the natural route without being pitched, and provide some great variation for sure.

Septage go for quality over originality here, and do that in exquisite manner. This is awesome underground grinding death that ticks all the right boxes in this household. Too bad it's all over in 11 minutes.

Not that I don't like the Autopsy and Incantation worship nowadays, but some Carcass worship like this is a breath of fresh air for sure.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10