VELVET THUNDER

Born from the fusion of metal’s power and immersive soundscapes, Septaria, a young band from the south of France, plays a captivating mix of post-metal and progressive metal. Their sound can be described as a mix of Gojira’s massive modern metal and Slowdive’s dreamy post-rock, with touches of The Ocean and Klone etc, offering an atmospheric and powerful journey through both aggressive and melodic passages. Their debut album Astar is out now, via Klonosphere/Season of Mist. 

The album explores the emotional contrasts within the human experience, suffering and happiness, pain and joy. It veers between light and shade, creating a deeply immersive experience that also has you on edge whilst listening, always wondering what the next slice will bring. Bandcamp tells us “Born from the power of metal and the immersive shades of ambient music combined, Septaria elaborates a post metal style seizing in a sensitive way the duality of human experience. With aggressive and melodic shifts, the band tracks the internal cathartic pathway leading from suffering to peace and contrast the body’s raw energies against the mind’s subtle elaborations.” So there!

There are twelve songs on the album, adding up to a whopping 70 minutes, all but, and it does seem a bit long all in one go, I did find myself drifting a little towards the end. Nevertheless it’s successful in creating a nicely haunting atmosphere, with arrangements and a mix that are a credit to such a young band – and their production team.

We start gently, Present Moment using clean melodic guitar work before the band kicks in. Harsh vocals give a dark, metallic vibe very reminiscent of Gojira, heavy but catchy, shifting the pace and mood well between sections. The echoey, clean, atmospheric sound sets their stall out in terms of trademark style. Next Up is Centuar, which bursts in with a sort of “melodic machine gun” from the guitars – its very effective, setting the scene for some vitriolic vocals. The metal melodies continue, before contrasting sections sail in – intriguing and inventive, but I found it broke the track up a little. Full marks for the creativity, mind.

Psyche does the same (see video below below), another gentle intro is submerged under a staccato riff, clean vocals overtaken by growl, the suspense building as the track progresses, so that towards the end a full-on slab of heavy riffs has developed. Nice percussion by the way, a clever hollowed-out effect. Abyss then follows, an instrumental that starts slowly, serenely even. Another “machine gun” riff, not to mention a similar impact from some thunderous drumming. A pause while we’re back into pastoral peacefulness, and the track sort of pleasantly fades away.

Sagittarius noodles in before a meaty, pacey vibe kicks in, spoken vocals introducing some nicely clean singing, then the full-throated roar. The rhythm and change of beat definitely keeps you tuned in to this one, weaving you in its spell, a strong number. Next up is the title track, the shortest number in the song-set. It features deep, almost Gregorian vocals incanted in a hushed style until the inevitable screams crash down, married to a monster of a riff. A simple uncluttered track but very effective. Persephone is another short number, very accomplished clean guitar melodies gather you up in its spell. Delicately hushed choral lines way back in the mix add to the sense of mystery before a very proggy chord arrangement theme enters, winding up with a Floyd-like overdub. Again, a very accomplished track.

At over ten minutes, Being is a bit of a monster. There’s a touch of eastern mysticism in the percussion, enhanced by deeply intoned vocals that gradually morph into harsher, guttural notes. This one does go on a bit, its where the extended proggy nature of the arrangement undoes some of their good work? This might be a bit harsh, because the track does build very effectively, a sense of tension before another slab of riffs hits you. Nocturne is a separate three-minute song but could well be part of the previous beast – and that’s where the dichotomy hits me – its ironic that the constantly changing style ands atmosphere becomes very samey – the music itself, for instance the tone of the guitars, becomes predictable in its interchangeability?

Embers has another strong melody whilst being cleanly heavy, reminding me of Dawnwalker perhaps. By this point I’m tired of the growl element of the vocals, its a personal thing but the band’s clean vocals are good enough to make more of. Sky’s Words follows, a very proggy, synth-led number with more ace precision percussion. Last up is Psithurism, another shorter track that washes in with waves, birdsong and acoustic guitar. Gently soporific, building with hints of soft choral notes behind it. It’s very nice but seems a strange way to end the album?

Overall, the album is a puzzle – I appreciate the depiction of the range of human emotions, but it as though there’s too much going on at times whilst ironically being a little one-paced at times as well! There’s some great musicianship but it sometimes feels like they’ve tried too hard, cramming too much into a single production? Definitely a band to watch though!