Do You Take This Noise!

Sete Star Sept have some obvious similarities with Necrocannibalistic Vomitorium, the band featured on the last Sloth split I reviewed. Both play grind variants, both have a woman on bass, a man on the drums and no guitarist, both are prolific, having shared splits with a multitude of bands (including each other). There are also significant differences. Despite the dominance of bass, Sete Star Sept don't have the hard, bouncy rhythms of NxVx, instead Kae Takahashi uses the instrument to produce pulsating walls of distortion in the tradition of Sore Throat and Anal Cunt. She provides the vocals (99% of the time) whereas the drummer takes on that duty in NxVx. Also, Sete Star Sept play faster and don't share the obsession with sexual depravity (or if they do, keep it to themselves).

This is not one of the band's best showings. In fact it's rather weak, with production bearing more of the blame than one would expect. Takahashi's vocals are buried, only gaining prominence when the other instruments fade out. The craziness of the band's music owes much to her distinct screeches. The production also shortchanges her bass-wise. Though she doesn't play the instrument as it's normally played, she retains a thick, weighty bass tone (one reason the band's sound is nearer metal than most noisecore acts), but it's comparatively anemic here. The drums also lack punch. Ryosuke Kiyasu's performance isn't his most inspired either. He is a madman behind the kit yet less frenzied than his bandmate—he's responsible for giving the songs what structure they have. I will give him credit for at least trying something new by playing around with slower tempos. This is a hard genre to write about (there's a faint feeling that dissecting it isn't just futile but in some sense wrong). Most listeners won't care to distinguish one recording from another. For anyone who might, despite my focus on negative aspects this isn't execrable, but in an extensive library of material it has too many problems to be recommended.

Sloth contribute one track which is longer than Sete Star Sept's eight put together. As this was released in 2015 (five years after the NxVx split and eight years after the Nunslaughter split), Sloth was now in their harsh noise wall phase. “Sloth Loves Umlaut Quattro & SxSxSx!” starts with a drumbeat which in a matter of seconds turns into said wall of noise. There is some work put into giving it more texture than is found in the avalanche of singles clogging up the Sloth Bandcamp page. It has a pulsing, vaguely rhythmic quality. At points there seems to be voices mixed in that have been distorted beyond recognition. Where most Sloth HNW tracks are like smooth, undecorated walls, this is like a stucco wall. There is more detail, but it's not exactly engrossing. What had the opportunity to salvage a disappointing release, didn't.

As far as the packaging, it comes in a thin DVD case which is unusual, though not exciting. Like other Sloth releases, I think the cover art would've been better left taking up real estate on a suburban family's refrigerator, though it is funny seeing such a drawing as the backdrop for a track listing with titles like “Feces” and “Fucked in Insects”.

If this isn't an essential Sete Star Sept release, you may be wondering what is. The Gero Me EP encapsulates their modern noisecore sound and the cover art is Shintaro Kago at his phantasmagorical best. Messenger from the Darkness sees the band embracing noise full on and is swollen with dark atmosphere. Those looking for something less removed from traditional grind should seek out the EPs Morbid Garden and Revision of Noise which feature guitarist Kuzuha (who now plays in Self Deconstruction).