### Septic Trauma: Subservience

#### 29/01/13 || BamaHammer

Septic Trauma is an unsigned five-piece from Cornwall, UK, who started up in 2011. They may only have been together for a year, but they sound like weathered death metal veterans even though they only have this EP to their name. Septic Trauma’s music is just just good, it’s actually excellent. The musicianship can even be described as stunning at times, incorporating tasty, catchy melodies with just enough technical death brutality. The guitar work reminds me a lot of Obscura in terms of technique and even tone, but Septic Trauma actually utilizes melodies far better than most other bands of the extreme technical death metal ilk of today. If you like technical death metal with superfluous melodies, there’s no way you wouldn’t dig this.

The guitar work is clearly Septic Trauma’s bread and butter. They lay down what I think of as the archetypal modern European death metal riffs in the vein of Sadist or Obscura, but then they really begin to shine with the harmonized leads and interludes. It’s always nice to hear a death metal band who understands the importance of using the entire fretboard, and I can say that these guys make the most of the entire guitar. The main downside I found with this record is simply that it only features three songs. That’s not even fair. With stuff this good, I think the metal community deserves a full-length. Make that happen, guys.

You can download this EP for free from the band’s website. It’s well worth it.

8/10: And thirsty for more.