Sete Star Sept, the grindcore duo of Kae Takahashi (bass & vocals) and Ryosuke Kiyasu (drums), made a name for themselves with their intensive international touring, their massive discography and of course with their extreme music: they have been on the road almost non-stop for the last several years and their trademark sound (super fast noisy grindcore songs in the form of short and extreme outbursts of complex drum / bass / vocal madness), was displayed on many releases on their own, but besides those, they dropped an incredible amount of splits as well, working with bands from all around the world. Their summer tour this year included a gig Budapest that took place in a small rehearsal studio and while I thought it was their first time in the city, Ryosuke (who is also involved with Keiji Haino‘s Fushitsusha lately by the way) told me that they actually played here a couple of years ago.

This time Sete Star Sept was touring around Europe with Macedonia’s Transhunter and while honestly I did not listen to them before the show, they turned out to be excellent. They were just as extreme as SSS, but in a completely different way: instead of short and fast tracks, they played an extremely slow take on doom / sludge metal with occasional electronics added to the mix, that gave it all a very unique industrial edge. But to have a better idea, just check out their album at bandcamp, out on the wonderfully named Fuck Yoga Record.

They played for about 20 minutes, which meant about four or five tracks, while SSS played for a little less than ten minutes and managed to squeezed 24 songs into that short time! But those ten minutes…! It was all an insanely intense attack on all senses, with a brutal wall of grindcore noise, complete with Kae’s frantic growling, complex and lightning fast bass and drum charges, and totally unexpected tempo changes. And those tempo changes in most cases actually marked the beginning of new songs. As it was all more like one long, completely crazy track without any stopping, engulfing us with its sheer brutality. And then, when everyone really started to get into it, it was already over, leaving us craving for more. But while it was certainly short, it was still a perfect introduction to the strange and insane world of Sete Star Sept.