Review Summary: Approaching more technical styles but avoiding their weaknesses, Gerra is a polished and groovy death metal affair.
Sectu's particular brand of technical death metal melds a wide range of influences, from some
Mastodon-esque prog freakouts to
Ulcerate emulation and dissonant dirges. Gerra sees the band at their fastest and most frenetic, which brings both good and bad things.
Undoubtedly the most impressive thing here is the variety of different styles on display and Sectu is clearly very able at all of them. Opener
Incinerate is a well-varied and fleet-footed track jumping from brutal death metal to melodic,
Nevermore-esque riffing. With an athletic drum performance and a fair share of tempo-shifts, it serves as a pretty good introduction to the range that Sectu has on offer.
Nightwraiths has a more conventional death metal sound with some foreboding Domination/Tucker-era
Morbid Angel vibes that work a treat, making the track the clear standout with some relatively simple but infectious riffs. The drumming is a continuously impressive element, with dynamic, groovy and nimble playing that draws the attention much more than the average tech-death blast-beats ad infinitum.
Unsurprisingly, said riffing is the name of the game here, and Sectu has a lot of slapping riffs - not just fast and technically impressive but some extremely groovy and pulverizing ones.
Manifest seems like an all-you-can-eat buffet of riffs, from straightforward death metal "double kick/tremolo picking" rushes to twisting arpeggios. The mild, somewhat subtler than usual polyrhythmic riffing on tracks like
Divest and
Havoc is a pleasant surprise in comparison to the sometimes excessive, "telegraphed" djent-influenced style that often creeps in in other modern death metal. A good dose of melodicism is also apparent throughout, but especially in the great closer
The All-Engorging Furnace, which impresses with its mixture of crushing dissonance with tasteful mid-paced lead-led riffing. All in all, it's safe to say the riffs are the big seller here.
Issues start to arise with the structuring of the songs, ever the bane of ye-talented-tech-death bands. Despite each individual part having a good sense of groove, sometimes Sectu are too quick to trade in one part for another, like on
Havoc where they too abruptly shift from an enjoyable melodic tremolo picking riff to a slightly clunky dissonant riff, which breaks the pace of the track. Elsewhere, somewhat over-eager shifts between song parts and complicated track structures tend to never quite give the individual riffs enough time to breath, which is unfortunate given how good they are in isolation.
The production is also another potential issue, albeit something of a double-edged sword in this case. The guitar sound is wonderfully clear which works great for the complicated riffing and often heavily layered harmonies and melodies, but is a little lacking in grit and power. With a pretty much absent bass and a somewhat lightweight drum sound, some of the more plodding and heavy tracks like
Summon the Bringer of Demise and
Court of Sloths are a little more toothless than they should be. This is especially unfortunate after the dense and bass-heavy sound of their first album, which would probably suit these tracks a little better.
With a well-varied sound and some well-placed tracks, Gerra is a pretty swift listen with not too many dragging spots and an even track list with few weak links. However, with a little more care in the songwriting and some more aggressive production it could have been a minor-classic. As it is, Gerra is a great tech-death album with plenty of unique elements, but falls short of its potential.
[Re-written 5th March 2021]
