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SEPTEKH
Plan For World Domination

Abyss (2014)
Rating: 8/10

After three EPs, Sweden’s Septekh have finally released their debut 13-track full-length album, and it’s one that showcases their talent for blackened thrash metal.

This quartet are an interesting bunch, however, because they are not afraid to mix their extreme metal spurts with sprigs of traditional metal, which becomes evident straight away on album opener ‘Into The Void Of My Mind’. For all of its fire and fury, ‘Into The Void Of My Mind’ boasts an upbeat, traditional metal backbone which worms its way around the thrashy belligerence and shows itself just over halfway through.

Vocally, Nils Meseke has a straightforward wretched sneer, which is complemented by the aggressive guitar work that hints at good, solid European thrash metal with deathlier shades. Intriguingly the topics are removed from the usual beer, blood and movies slant; titles such as ‘Goin’ Down In Style’, ‘Don Asshole’, ‘Superheated Liquid Iron Core’ and ‘Fuck Dollar’ suggest a band with an eye for the original, and some of the melodies on this record are interesting to say the least.

‘Goin’ Down In Style’ is an incredibly catchy number far removed from the black thrash lean I was expecting. In fact, it’s a good rock ’n’ roll song with a backbeat of doomy aplomb; at one point I’m even reminded of Trouble’s ‘At The End Of My Daze’, yet with snarled vocals and less gloom.

‘Saving Graces’ is another traditional metal rocker mixed with a thrashier, and dare I say it, punkier edge. In fact, it’s the scratchy vocal which stops this from completely being merely an unusual heavy metal album. David Wikström is a talented guitar player and his riffs are served with colour, and yet remain razor sharp to work in tandem with Staffan Persson’s energetic percussion. ‘Neanderthal’ is a super-charged case of rattle ’n’ roll – it hints at Entombed at their most accessible – while ‘Don Asshole’ is a mid-tempo chug which bleeds into the driving ‘Left Handed Man’, which even has a touch of Darkthrone about it.

Plan For World Domination is really an album that deserves your time, because once it gets its rusty hooks in it becomes an essential purchase. It’s great to hear a band combine several styles, and yet remain completely fresh. If you like real grimy, doom-laden metal then pluck for ‘Black Shores’ with its oily lumber, but if you want something more bitter and twisted then choose the spitting ‘Fuck Dollar’. But, if it’s uptempo, galloping metal you’re after, then you can’t go wrong with the speedy ‘Eyes Of The Grave’.

Well, I never expected to hear a Swedish band come up with something different than the usual Entombed-style buzzsaw death ’n’ roll, but Plan For World Domination has such a cool, upbeat edge about it and a sound that makes it nigh on impossible to pigeonhole the band. This is snarling metal with pace and melody in abundance, and with such a vicious scowl to lead the charge, world domination could well be just around the corner.

Neil Arnold

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