The Obscene
The Obscene were good enough to send me a link through to their album to download to check out. After a slight speaker error on the stereo which upset most of the houses around mine (I may have messed up the volume as I pushed play) I finally got my hearing back and set about listening to the tracks properly – check it out.
Building up through The Storm To come (intro), an eerie and echoey feeling is adopted, warning of something more to follow on, something dark – and when Embrace Oblivion kicks in you realise why. Uncompromisingly heavy from the outset, this track chops and changes pace whilst maintaining the key heavy and sludgy guitar riffs, manic drums and roving bass line. Roaring vocals power the track ever onwards to the moment it ends, from the outset this album is unrelenting! As Grim Discovery kicks in with a sound byte, the speedy downright dirty metal continues, powering ever onwards only this time using contrasting vocals – roaring at one point and screeching a moment later, the contrast adding further to the already heavy track and powering it into the depths of pure down right sordid insanity, the word uncompromising comes to mind again!
Beyond the Hold of God slows things down but once again doesn’t hold back on the heaviness of the track. Opening with a chunky and sludgy guitar line, this track is like old Nail Bomb stuff musically but akin to Cannibal Corpse on the vocals, the combination creating a heavy meld of styles which comes out as both melodic and disjointed, it’s an achievement to create a sound which is so complex. Another sound byte asking whether it’s ok to borrow your body for a few hours launches Skiprat Jane into the mix – faster, heavier and downright more mental than the tracks which have come before. The guitars rove up and down the neck whilst the frantic drums and contrasting vocals call the shots throughout, this track is guaranteed to be a winner on the live scene! The broken down section in the middle of the track allows a lead guitar line to take on the track whilst still continuing with that insanely heavy riff. Heavy that track was, but it’s nothing compared to The Final Silence – kicking in heavy and once again full to the brim of frantic drums, downright sludgy guitar riffs and guttural roars, as this track progresses you can imagine the live scene and how the crowd would react to it, it’s insane.
P.S.A.S follows on, opening with strange sounds such as a heart beat and breathing, this track seems deeper and darker than the others on the album, adopting a more raw approach to proceedings. The band included their 2008 EP on this album and the contrast is phenomenal, you can hear the journey the band have taken to their current point when you compare the older tracks to the newer ones. More raw and less refined, this is death metal in its truest sense, brutal from the outset and never holding back (except for a brief Spanish style guitar break – which works surprisingly well!). Destroying the Heavens demonstrates this ability to incorporate other styles once again, opening with Spanish guitars and kicking into screeching vocals and riffing guitars, the contrast immediately catches the listener off guard but goes to show how a band can approach creating their own style.
As The Man, The Martyr kicks in, once again we’re treated to those frantic drums and insane guitars, all building up to roaring and guttural vocals all set to an insanely fast beat. Once again adopting their unrelenting pace, this band seem to be determined to never back down, never relent and never hold back anything on their tracks – the strange break section/solo is testament to this – it doesn’t seem to fit on first listen but you soon realise that it’s a work of genius, backing down for a second then coming back stronger than ever. Moving into Circle of Despair, the band open with a very Ozzy Osbourne style riff before once again picking up their pace and powering onwards with those gruff vocals contrasted by screechier vocals over the top. This track doesn’t seem as heavy as those before it at first but soon finds its pace, it’s almost like the band are testing everyone that listens to it to see if they’re paying attention!
Final track And the Rivers Ran Black finishes the album leaving you wanting more, heavy and fast paced from the outset, the band show off all of their skills in this track once again creating an insanely heavy yet somehow melodic track to finish off.
I don’t know what I was expecting from these guys and to be honest, as the first track kicked in I wasn’t sure about things on the first time I listened to it. After a couple of listens though everything fell into place and I realised that these guys are producing old school death metal whilst putting their own stamp on things to make it their own, and they’re doing it well! If you like your punk and soft rock you won’t like this, but if like me you love a band who throw everything they’ve got at a track and create a sound big enough to blow your ear drums out, these guys are for you!
To find out more about The Obscene, check out their page HERE.
Building up through The Storm To come (intro), an eerie and echoey feeling is adopted, warning of something more to follow on, something dark – and when Embrace Oblivion kicks in you realise why. Uncompromisingly heavy from the outset, this track chops and changes pace whilst maintaining the key heavy and sludgy guitar riffs, manic drums and roving bass line. Roaring vocals power the track ever onwards to the moment it ends, from the outset this album is unrelenting! As Grim Discovery kicks in with a sound byte, the speedy downright dirty metal continues, powering ever onwards only this time using contrasting vocals – roaring at one point and screeching a moment later, the contrast adding further to the already heavy track and powering it into the depths of pure down right sordid insanity, the word uncompromising comes to mind again!
Beyond the Hold of God slows things down but once again doesn’t hold back on the heaviness of the track. Opening with a chunky and sludgy guitar line, this track is like old Nail Bomb stuff musically but akin to Cannibal Corpse on the vocals, the combination creating a heavy meld of styles which comes out as both melodic and disjointed, it’s an achievement to create a sound which is so complex. Another sound byte asking whether it’s ok to borrow your body for a few hours launches Skiprat Jane into the mix – faster, heavier and downright more mental than the tracks which have come before. The guitars rove up and down the neck whilst the frantic drums and contrasting vocals call the shots throughout, this track is guaranteed to be a winner on the live scene! The broken down section in the middle of the track allows a lead guitar line to take on the track whilst still continuing with that insanely heavy riff. Heavy that track was, but it’s nothing compared to The Final Silence – kicking in heavy and once again full to the brim of frantic drums, downright sludgy guitar riffs and guttural roars, as this track progresses you can imagine the live scene and how the crowd would react to it, it’s insane.
P.S.A.S follows on, opening with strange sounds such as a heart beat and breathing, this track seems deeper and darker than the others on the album, adopting a more raw approach to proceedings. The band included their 2008 EP on this album and the contrast is phenomenal, you can hear the journey the band have taken to their current point when you compare the older tracks to the newer ones. More raw and less refined, this is death metal in its truest sense, brutal from the outset and never holding back (except for a brief Spanish style guitar break – which works surprisingly well!). Destroying the Heavens demonstrates this ability to incorporate other styles once again, opening with Spanish guitars and kicking into screeching vocals and riffing guitars, the contrast immediately catches the listener off guard but goes to show how a band can approach creating their own style.
As The Man, The Martyr kicks in, once again we’re treated to those frantic drums and insane guitars, all building up to roaring and guttural vocals all set to an insanely fast beat. Once again adopting their unrelenting pace, this band seem to be determined to never back down, never relent and never hold back anything on their tracks – the strange break section/solo is testament to this – it doesn’t seem to fit on first listen but you soon realise that it’s a work of genius, backing down for a second then coming back stronger than ever. Moving into Circle of Despair, the band open with a very Ozzy Osbourne style riff before once again picking up their pace and powering onwards with those gruff vocals contrasted by screechier vocals over the top. This track doesn’t seem as heavy as those before it at first but soon finds its pace, it’s almost like the band are testing everyone that listens to it to see if they’re paying attention!
Final track And the Rivers Ran Black finishes the album leaving you wanting more, heavy and fast paced from the outset, the band show off all of their skills in this track once again creating an insanely heavy yet somehow melodic track to finish off.
I don’t know what I was expecting from these guys and to be honest, as the first track kicked in I wasn’t sure about things on the first time I listened to it. After a couple of listens though everything fell into place and I realised that these guys are producing old school death metal whilst putting their own stamp on things to make it their own, and they’re doing it well! If you like your punk and soft rock you won’t like this, but if like me you love a band who throw everything they’ve got at a track and create a sound big enough to blow your ear drums out, these guys are for you!
To find out more about The Obscene, check out their page HERE.