I hate the word transparent as it seems it’s thrown around and used a lot but without fully understanding or utilising its true meaning. So I’d rather be open and honest. This review was meant to go out last week, but my ‘big girl job’ (the one that pays the bills) trumped being able to work on my passion project, Amplify the Noise, that does not pay the bills for the last few weeks. I owe Seethe an apology for that as I had promised them I would listen and review and set a date for the review to be posted. I failed Seethe and failed to meet my word. For failing to hold true to my word, I apologise to Seethe.
Why am I being so open and honest about this you may ask?
It has everything to do with Delenda: A Black Rose on the Epitaph.
Following April 2023’s Psalms of the Dead Better Left Unsung and Unread, Delenda: A Black Rose on the Epitaph is an open and honest album that explores the human psyche. Be it mental health or the navigation of the consciousness of the mind, the album is raw with emotion that brim and hug the edges of sanity and insanity by mere threads.
It’s the palpable emotion that Seethe conveys through each note and each word that makes Delenda: A Black Rose on the Epitaph a guiding light through the darkness of one’s mind.
Can a fusion of alternative, trap, and metal music really be a beacon of hope? Isn’t the sound chaotic for a mind?
The short answer is no.
The longer answer is that the sound Seethe has masterfully and carefully created for Delenda: A Black Rose on the Epitaph could very well be a perfect soundtrack to a chaotic mind. Or perhaps, it’s just a perfect soundtrack for my own mental struggles and chaotic mind.
As I wrote for “Can’t Breathe”, the song envelops listeners with its echoing beats and chilling rhythms, creating a captivating atmosphere that draws you in and refuses to let go.
The captivating atmosphere doesn’t stop with the track. It’s carried out through the entire album. If anything, when Seethe released “Can’t Breathe” as the first single, they laid the groundwork for the sound expectation of the album.
And they meet that expectation wonderfully.
In “If You Will”, the piano/keys and news sound bites create a dark and haunting world where things are not okay. It resonates with a heavy sadness and loss and hits close to the current level of emotional crises from the state of the world. Whether that was intentional or accidental when recording, it proves how in touch Seethe is with the world around them.
Musically with Delenda: A Black Rose on the Epitaph there are moments when I hear influences of the likes of Korn, Marilyn Manson, Static-X, Linkin Park, and Nine Inch Nails.
The vocals within “Death Left Here” had me checking more than once if I was listening to a new Marilyn Manson song as the vocal fry was similar to his style. Instead of distracting, the echoes of influences help elevate the songs on the album.
The music is fraught with pain, ache, hurt, and anxiety. So much so that I want to give Seethe a hug, a cup of tea, and tell them it will all be okay.
The second single, “Linear”, as I wrote before, does not sound linear. Nor does it musically invoke a sense of balance but almost a sense of rewind like that of playing an album backwards. But that notion of looking back or rewinding allows a step forward. While the music may invoke a moment of reflection, in that reflection there is a wondrous sense of ease.
But for me, the stand out track happens early on within Delenda: A Black Rose on the Epitaph’s nine tracks. It’s “Destitute” that I found myself stopping and starting again and revisiting again and again. There’s a quiet softness I rather like within the track and in saything that, I am not saying the song is soft, far from it. The way the music and lyrics are pieced together have created a wonderful harmonious and melodic softness to the song. It’s in that softness that Seethe’s talent is truly exposed and the undeniable truth of how open and honest they’re being not only with themselves but with anyone who listens.
That honesty is what makes Delenda: A Black Rose on the Epitaph an album that surpasses just being music, but a guidepost, a beacon through the darkness. It’s an album that allows one to start healing and perhaps even give space to laying their own rose on the epitaph of the darkness that held them back.
MUST LISTEN TRACKS: “Destitute”, “If You Will”, “Death Left Here”, “Sold Me”
FAVOURITE TRACKS: “Destitute”, “Linear”, “In a Dream”
