Here's a cool little reissue from the folks over at Season of Mist, the 1998 release from Greek act Septicflesh, titled A Fallen Temple. This one features re-recordings from their 1991 debut EP Temple of the Lost Race mixed with some of their more avant-garde songs recorded during those ensuing years. Varied clean & growling vocals, female passages and choirs, as well as classical and gothic elements combined to create some very 'different' interpretations of these songs. Your standard death or black metal A Fallen Temple is not, but it kind of set the stage for the experimenting that the band would take part in going forward and still do to this date. To add even more cool stuff, Season of Mist have included their cover of Paradise Lost's "The Last Time" and all tracks from The Eldest Cosmonaut EP. Many of these songs actually have a gothic/doom/death metal flavor to them, which is not far removed from early Paradise Lost, especially "Marble Smiling Face" and "The Crypt", while "Temple of the Lost Race" is blistering death metal and the "Underworld" tracks are, well, just really different and out there, showing a band that had embraced their cinematic as well as prog side. For my money, the absolutely crushing "Erebus" is worth the price of admission alone.
Season of Mist is remastering the whole Septicflesh back catalog, with new artwork specially designed by Seth Siro Anton, and bonus tracks. This one is a great start, and looking forward to the rest.
Track Listing
1. Brotherhood of the Fallen Knights
2. The Eldest Cosmonaut
3. Marble Smiling Face
4. Underworld Act 1
5. Temple of the Lost Race
6. The Crypt
7. Setting of the Two Suns
8. Erebus
9. Underworld Act 2
10. The Eldest Cosmonaut (dark mix)
11. The Last Time (Paradise Lost cover)
12. Underworld Act 3
13. Finale
14. The Eldest Cosmonaut (single version)