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SEPTIC TANK
Rotting Civilisation

Rise Above (2018)
Rating: 8/10

Man, here’s a record to take you back to the glorious days of Repulsion, Unseen Terror, Extreme Noise Terror, Septic Death etc. It’s all here; the artwork, the political stance, and of course former Cathedral and Napalm Death frontman Lee Dorrian barking out the orders amidst a sea of war-torn, polluted human debris.

Septic Tank is a project that also features guitarist Gaz Jennings (ex-Acid Reign / ex-Cathedral), bassist Scott Carlson (Repulsion / ex-Cathedral) and drummer Jaime Gómez Arellano (ex-Dām / ex-Blutvial). The band has actually been in existence since 1994, but it wasn’t until 2013 that a self-titled EP emerged. And now the combo has finally got their act together for this 18-track debut full-length affair, Rotting Civilisation.

Like so many great hardcore influenced bands, the album compromises of tracks which are mostly two-minutes or under. What we get are belligerent bursts of crusty doom, punky crossover, thrashcore and goodness knows what else that would have made the late DJ John Peel proud.

Of course, Dorrian’s vocal tone is easily recognisable, even through the thrashier tones of ‘Treasurers Of Disease’. However, the band just cannot help but resort to dirty, mid-paced chugginess, and so it all makes for a rather refreshing listen from the opening hyperblast of ‘Septic Tank’ to the Hellhammer / Celtic Frost grimness of ‘Death Vase’, complete with Tom G. Warrior token drools and twisted black riffery.

There’s enough social unrest and political upheaval within the lyrics to shake a stick at, and so the gnarly expressions of greed, hate and general angst is at times a tatty time machine back to the glory days of UK hardcore / punk / crossover scene.

There are numerous influences, particularly Discharge and Motörhead with the rusty thrash grind of ‘Digging Your Own Grave’. But the whole record reeks of old school crustiness, from the clanking ‘You Want Some’, the ominous ‘Living Death’, and the pissed off stench of ‘Never Never Land’. Indeed, Septic Tank are proof that short stories are the best as they crank out bustling, hurried heaps of crust and rust delivered with spontaneous youthfulness.

At times this 40-minute affair bridges the gap between the likes of GBH and Motörhead, with a dose of Tank, old Napalm Death and Celtic Frost thrown in for good measure. There’s a blast from several pasts as ‘Social Media Whore’, ‘Divide And Conk Out’, ‘Walking Asylum’ et al act as scuzzy cauldrons boiled in worship of a Hellhammer / Discharge mutation.

And that’s the long and short of it; Septic Tank delivering numerous hostile and gritty blows in the form of brief volatile news reports painting hostile pictures of the world around us.

Neil Arnold

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