OBSCURA KICKED MY ASS!

OK, I’m gonna be honest: I never really digged technical death metal. Really, Pestilence, Atheist, Cynic…I never got these bands and they create no emotions whatsoever in my deviant heart. And please don’t mention the AWEFUL brutal/technical death metal bands. How many of you still remember Pessimist???

I know some people who’d sentence me to death for saying that…

Anyways, there are some exceptions though, and they all share the same characteristics (I may be a jerk, but I try to stay logical). In fact, there is ONE simple characteristic: all the bands I like focus on writing SONGS, not just a bunch of crazy rapid riffs with wild and superhuman drumming.

The first band that obviously comes to mind is DEATH. I love Death, one of my all-time favorite bands, Chuck Schuldiner never released anything else than classics, classics and more classics. 
Then one day, I bought Omnivium, Obscura's third record by accident. I found it for a pretty cheap price, and just like when I’m at the supermarket; I never let such an opportunity slip through my hands.

And what a revelation it turned out to be! I love it, from the first to the last note, it’s brilliant. Very technical, sometimes totally insane, but the songs are still the main point here. There are several layers in fact, and you just rediscover the songs at each spin, from the apparently simple melodic death tunes like opener “Septuagint” to the killer instrumental “A Transcendental Serenade” (AWESOME bass lines!). There are also some cool choruses here and there as the band has reached tremendous heights in terms of songwriting.

Now what I love to do when I discover a cool band, is buying their previous records and listening to their whole production methodically.

Cosmogenesis is the band’s second record and it is also fantastic. Some people even consider it to be stronger than Ominivium. I understand them, but I do not agree at all. The thing is Cosmogenesis is more like a usual technical death metal record, the ones that I hate! Don’t get me wrong here, I still love it, but the songwriting here is not as smooth. The songs are impressively technical, totally crazy and sometimes you loose that focus. Still an excellent release though, with fantastic tracks like “Infinite Rotation” and “Noosphere”.  

Now comes Retribution, the recently re-edited first record. And as you might expect from a first record, it sounds raw, a bit naive and it’s not as good as the rest. It also lacks personality and sounds very much like…Death! There you go, now you know why I love that band!

I also need to mention that some sort of cosmic concept links the 3 albums, and they form a trilogy. The artworks are also fantastic, very complex as well and they perfectly fit the concept.  I just love such bands!