Techincal death metal band Obscura, celebrate their recent North America/Mexioc tour with this 10 track live album which captures the sheer intensity and technical proficency of the band on stage. Taken from various shows on the 2022/2023 A Valediction World Tour, the tracks are taken from the A Valediction album along with earlier releases such as Cosmogenesis, Omnivium, Akroasis and Diluvium.
As it does come from a few different shows, it doesn't necessraily link like a proper live album captured at one place. However the tracks were chosen by the criteria of best perfromance, best reaction etc of that show, then compared with others and the final one making it to this record. Steffan Kummerer creating the setlist with producer Fredrik Nordström, who mixed and mastered things with his razroshapr audio quality, so it was as effective and enjoyable as possible.
The proggy Forsaken changes into the vicious Emergent Evolution and the crushing industrial heaviness of Ode To The Sun, with thes being live tracks you can really hear the incredible bass playing on Ode To The Sun, The Anticosmic Overload and Ocean Gateways, which also has some punishing drumming.
What this album is really is sort of a live compilation that will entice perhaps people who don't know much about the band and satisfy their fans. It's a "greatest hits" but prepares you for their live show too so not much neagtice around it at all. 7/10
The Fulcrum – Collide (Self Released) [Kira Hughes]
The Fulcrum are an intense rock band from Long Island NY, who love exploring themes of ‘isolation, condemnation, love and psychedelia’. Their new album Collide contains 10 extremely heavy songs that you can get lost in.The starting track Collide kickstarts the album with a power and passion-filled tone! The drums are bold and bouncy whereas the guitar riff is rough and dirty matching the raspy, deep and gorgeous vocals. Synesthesia has a smooth and steady beat throughout with a change in vocals that sound softer yet holds a unique vocal range, reminding me of Ozzy Osbourne.
Wolves includes a fast drumbeat with a subtle and smooth guitar until the chorus approaches allowing the guitar to gift us power-filled riffs. The vocals are clear and hold a calming tone against the heavy instrumentals. Starting slow and smooth Nostalgia quickly builds up with a steady drumbeat as well as an impressive guitar riff, not forgetting that Ozzy inspired vocal range, giving us listeners total ‘Nostalgia’ of 80’s Rock N Roll. Thirst immediately starts with a beautiful whispery voice backed with heavenly harmonies throughout the chorus. This track truly shows off the vocal talent, expressing different vocal ranges and creating an alluring tone. Thirst has to be my favourite track off the album, from start to finish it’s gripping and continuously draws you into the lyrical story.
In Wonder grabs your attention with an interesting start, a simple steady, smooth beat that is held throughout the track, the vocals are whispery giving us an intriguing tone and making you truly listen to the lyrics. Risk starts with a beautiful bouncy guitar riff that gets your shoulders bopping along to the beat as the powerful vocals take you away. Empty Again expresses classic 80’s guitar riffs with a steady walking drumbeat that gets your toes tapping. Deeper Blue is upbeat and bouncy, a great song to jump around, swing your hips and rock out to!
Bursting Through wastes no time and immediately starts with vocals before the band joins in with the drums and the guitar riffs. I enjoyed the vocal changes throughout this album, making each track a new experience and keeping me on the edge of my seat with what might come next. 9/10
NYOS - Waterfall Cave Fantasy, Forever (Pelagic Records) [Joe Guatieri]
Out of the beautiful rivers of Finland comes something far stranger than what anyone would expect as Noise Rock duo NYOS bring us their sixth full-length album. What can we expect with this experience?
The opener of this record Kuusi, was already a big surprise to me given how much I already enjoy this experimental genre. No vocals were present at all here, given how much of a common trope this is within music, it provides the listener with no handlebars as things could go anywhere. It starts with an odd drum pattern that acts as the launching point for everything around it, eventually combining with big distorted cinematic guitars which envelop everything within their path.
Things only get stranger with the following track, Follow The Hawk Moth. This song is personified by its title and sounds like you have the point of view of a Moth flying around the world, constantly fearing for your life. I think that the layers of weird guitar parts in this song represent that very well, especially within its more repetitive phrases in which they sound like wings flapping at a very high speed.
Track five takes the reward for my favourite song on the record with I Flew Until It Fell. It’s a lot more chaotic than the previous tracks and has an Eastern influence within its feel, especially in the guitars with the pitches constantly rising and falling. A more reserved middle gets progressively heavier towards the end, going from a point of calmness to suddenly swimming away from a massive shark. This song presents much more of the type of sound that I was expecting to hear from Waterfall Cave Fantasy, Forever.
The closest thing that I can compare this album to is the band Hella in terms of their bizarre nature. It’s a slow start but each track has their own identity, the deeper you dive into the track listing the more it deviates, wild things are always around the corner. Overall NYOS brings a challenging experience but also in time a rewarding one. 7/10
Necroticgorebeast - Repugnant (Comatose Music) [GC]
Death metal, more specifically ‘’brutal death metal’’ is there a more polarizing genre within metal!? Some of it is really good (not much), some of it is so mid its boring and let’s be honest most of it is just fucking awful, like the worst type of music I have ever heard because there’s not much you can do with it before you get accused not being brutal enough? And then of and then you get some of the ‘’imaginative’’ song titles that sometimes just needed to be binned off, so with that glowing description I now have to review Repugnant the new offering from Necroticgorebeast, can’t wait.
It all starts out with an uncharacteristically mellow and moody start before Repugnant starts properly and then doesn’t really do much for the next few minutes? It’s all very mid-paced and not all that brutal to be honest, it’s all just a bit run of the mill deathcore sounding, Unsedated Face Removal doesn’t really pick the pace up either it’s all very pedestrian to begin with and when the main bit does kick in its just beatdowns for the sake of beatdowns and the vocals when they bother to put any in just get lost in the mix, drummer seems to have a bit about him I guess but unfortunately nothing else really stands out for me.
Out of the beautiful rivers of Finland comes something far stranger than what anyone would expect as Noise Rock duo NYOS bring us their sixth full-length album. What can we expect with this experience?
The opener of this record Kuusi, was already a big surprise to me given how much I already enjoy this experimental genre. No vocals were present at all here, given how much of a common trope this is within music, it provides the listener with no handlebars as things could go anywhere. It starts with an odd drum pattern that acts as the launching point for everything around it, eventually combining with big distorted cinematic guitars which envelop everything within their path.
Things only get stranger with the following track, Follow The Hawk Moth. This song is personified by its title and sounds like you have the point of view of a Moth flying around the world, constantly fearing for your life. I think that the layers of weird guitar parts in this song represent that very well, especially within its more repetitive phrases in which they sound like wings flapping at a very high speed.
Track five takes the reward for my favourite song on the record with I Flew Until It Fell. It’s a lot more chaotic than the previous tracks and has an Eastern influence within its feel, especially in the guitars with the pitches constantly rising and falling. A more reserved middle gets progressively heavier towards the end, going from a point of calmness to suddenly swimming away from a massive shark. This song presents much more of the type of sound that I was expecting to hear from Waterfall Cave Fantasy, Forever.
The closest thing that I can compare this album to is the band Hella in terms of their bizarre nature. It’s a slow start but each track has their own identity, the deeper you dive into the track listing the more it deviates, wild things are always around the corner. Overall NYOS brings a challenging experience but also in time a rewarding one. 7/10
Necroticgorebeast - Repugnant (Comatose Music) [GC]
Death metal, more specifically ‘’brutal death metal’’ is there a more polarizing genre within metal!? Some of it is really good (not much), some of it is so mid its boring and let’s be honest most of it is just fucking awful, like the worst type of music I have ever heard because there’s not much you can do with it before you get accused not being brutal enough? And then of and then you get some of the ‘’imaginative’’ song titles that sometimes just needed to be binned off, so with that glowing description I now have to review Repugnant the new offering from Necroticgorebeast, can’t wait.
It all starts out with an uncharacteristically mellow and moody start before Repugnant starts properly and then doesn’t really do much for the next few minutes? It’s all very mid-paced and not all that brutal to be honest, it’s all just a bit run of the mill deathcore sounding, Unsedated Face Removal doesn’t really pick the pace up either it’s all very pedestrian to begin with and when the main bit does kick in its just beatdowns for the sake of beatdowns and the vocals when they bother to put any in just get lost in the mix, drummer seems to have a bit about him I guess but unfortunately nothing else really stands out for me.
Consensual Castration (not even the wackiest song title) does actually ramp things up a bit and manages to have some high pitched screeched vocals added in that finally stand out in the mix but again they aren’t used anywhere near enough for my liking as they have been the best vocals so far musically its not too bad but just kind of ends abruptly like they didn’t really know how they should have finished the song.
Gouged Eye Copulation is more mid-paced but slightly more old school sounding death metal that huffs and puffs but doesn’t really blow anything down and it seems to be a bit of a re-occurring theme so far nothing stands out or really grabs your attention enough and to be 100% honest it’s all just a bit boring. And with that we now get the ‘’classic’’ brutal death metal song title, brace yourself, next track Masturbated To Death is just another exercise in mid-paced death metal with no surprises, seriously they need to pick the pace up because its just mind numbing and the brie brie vocals on this song actually just annoyed me as they add nothing, a good death metal vocal enhances and carries a song along, here it just mixes in and might as well not be there.
Following that we have another classic Nail Clipper Circumcision which manages to be the slowest and drawn out song so far, which trust me is some work, the guitars are there, the drums pound and crash and the vocals are actually mixed up so you can hear them more but you kind of don’t want to anymore because barring one track it’s been EXACTLY THE SAME ALL THE WAY THROUGH and its not like there any good anyway!
At this point I am beyond bored of this album, I don’t hate it but its just so samey all the way through and of course Ruptured Priapism does nothing to change that opinion I’m afraid. You could pick any of the preceding 7 track and mix the song titles up and you wouldn’t know the difference. I will be honest and say while I heard both Phlebotomized and Frozen Feces Evisceration, I didn’t really care enough about either to give my opinion on them as they predicably just sounded like everything else, I have already heard, and I just wanted this album to finish so I could get back to watching the wall I had just painted finish drying and have some fun.
For me this album sits firmly in the didn’t do enough to make me care section, it wasn’t ‘’brutal’’ at all and was one paced pretty much all the way through, the vocals were all but pointless as they just blended into the mix and the music never made me want to care at any point! A really disappointing and ultimately very, very boring listen. 4/10
For me this album sits firmly in the didn’t do enough to make me care section, it wasn’t ‘’brutal’’ at all and was one paced pretty much all the way through, the vocals were all but pointless as they just blended into the mix and the music never made me want to care at any point! A really disappointing and ultimately very, very boring listen. 4/10
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