SEPTICFLESH: 'The Great Mass' Track Listing Revealed

Greek demons SEPTICFLESH will release their new album, "The Great Mass", on April 18 in Europe (April 19 in North America) via Season Of Mist. The new opus will be made available in the following formats:

* CD + Blu-ray digipak
* Collector's book, including 2 CDs + Blu-ray
* 12" gatefold LP
* CD jewel case
* Digital download

The cover artwork of the album's jewel case edition, designed by Seth Siro Anton himself, can be viewed below.

"The Great Mass" track listing:

01. The Vampire From Nazareth
02. A Great Mass Of Death
03. Pyramid God
04. Five-Pointed Star
05. Oceans Of Grey
06. The Undead Keep Dreaming
07. Rising
08. Apocalypse
09. Mad Architect
10. Therianthropy

Commented Seth: "This is a small fragment of the artwork that will dress the new artistic experiment of SEPTICFLESH, 'The Great Mass'. It is a small part of an occult machine made from marble and flesh, fantasy and reality, order and chaos. A great machine composed from the blasphemous union of strange figures, creations of Man, the creator of the gods and demons. Their grotesque purpose will be revealed soon, when all the cover editions of the new album will be presented and will be combined together… Let the great self-cannibalistic symposium begin."

The main artwork for "The Great Mass" will appear on the limited digipak edition, the gatefold LP and the dust jacket of the collector's book.

A brand new song from SEPTICFLESH's forthcoming album, entitled "The Vampire From Nazareth", can be streamed below.

Sven Letourneur, editor of France's Hard Rock magazine, conducted an interview with SEPTICFLESH guitarist/composer Christos Antoniou, on November 15, 2010. The chat follows below.

Hard Rock: Christos, you worked on all the orchestral parts and arrangements of course. Why did you choose to work with the Orchestra of Prague again?

Sotiris: With "Communion" they did an excellent job and their interpretation on the new album is amazing. I know them, they know me very well and I can say, although it's still very early, that they will perform also for our next album in the future.

Hard Rock: Were they the same musicians that already recorded the classical parts for "Communion"? Do you know what they think of the final result of this album? Are they interested in what SEPTICFLESH sounds like once everything is mixed? As classically trained musicians, do they appreciate your music even during the metal parts?

Sotiris: A majority of them were already on the "Communion" album. But we used more people, especially for the brass section: we had eight horns, four trumpets, four trombones and two tubas. The sound is massive. Of course, we added some more players, like a boy soprano and a harpsichord player for the color. The boy soprano, especially, added a really dark atmosphere in the new album. The orchestra musicians haven't listened to the result yet as we are in the mastering process, but I'm sure they will like it. There are nearly 130 people, but I think the majority of them will not really be interested in SEPTICFLESH. As you understand, they record every day, but I saw some metal fans in the percussion section and they will definitely buy the record. Some of them might not understand that it was for a metal album as they only listen to the click in the recordings and they don't hear the metal parts. They do an excellent work and I consider them as our fifth member. I don't expect that everybody will like or understand our music. At the end of the day, their interpretation is what counts.

Hard Rock: How did you start working on the first orchestral ideas? Did you work on some songs starting from the metal ideas and adding symphonic parts to it or the other way around mainly?

Sotiris: I followed a different approach than on "Communion". Back then I orchestrated many metal riffs, but this time I composed the majority of the orchestral parts in the first place. Then Seth, Sotiris and Fotis added their ideas on top of the orchestra. I started composition on March (2010) and I had many ideas for the orchestra. During the summer I was working a lot on orchestrations, 17 hours per day non stop. But the result is really great, I'm really satisfied with the material. I composed on the piano and then I orchestrated both on paper and notation software.

Hard Rock: When did the actual orchestra recordings happen and how much time did they need?

Sotiris: It took four days. As the orchestra was really big, we separated the recordings in families: first strings-woodwinds, then brass-percussion, then choir and at the end the boy soprano, the harpsichord and the piano. It was a hectic work since many people were involved but the producer and the contractor were very organized in order to have the sessions running smooth. Everything is on score, I write everything with a lot of information and they just perform what is on their music sheets. Unless there is an improvisation section, which was rare on the scores.