Zitat:Bands within the death and black metal genres are usually characterized by extremely rough early releases that get progressively better as they find their sound and nail down their production techniques. Despite this overriding trend, Obscura has somehow catapulted themselves well past all of their competition into the highest tier of the technical death metal field with only their sophomore release. Then again, their prowess probably shouldn”™t come as too much of a surprise, considering the line-up now includes musicians from such acts as Necrophagist and Pestilence. If that wasn”™t enough, adding in Tymon from Cynic in a guest spot should seal the deal on “Cosmogenesis,” which undoubtedly will be hailed as one of the great death metal albums of the year.
“The Anticosmic Overload” immediately shows off both the power and technical prowess of “Cosmogensis,” with fast, frantic, and complex dual guitars racing around each other in intricate patterns of truly cosmic proportions. One of the best qualities of the album also makes an early appearance when the bass shows up high enough in the mix to be clearly heard even when the guitars are raging. The bass playing doesn”™t just complement the other instruments but rather adds something integral that would seriously detract from the music if it were removed. The vocals start off in a more modern black metal style, somewhere between a scream and a growl that is absolutely seething with fury and strength, and then switch to the more traditional deep death growl that has less range but more weight. Each of the songs features a good mixture of the two to prevent the growls and shrieks from ever getting monotonous or blending in together.
New twists and variations are revealed in the second track, “Choirs of Spirits,” when distorted clean vocals appear unexpectedly and are filtered with some sort of echo to sound like a voice bouncing off of a satellite far off in the cosmos. The end of the song again shows how closely knit the bass is to the music as it plays off the guitars to give off a sick revolving feel of a planet spinning wildly off of its axis. Every now and again during the album there will be brief display of guitar virtuosity when all of the notes are played at a very high pitch and at an extremely fast speed, much like what might be heard in a power metal act. These more showy moments are usually kept firmly in check and almost always work within the overall melodies so that they don”™t take control or subtract from the brutality of the music.
“Universe Momentum” starts off with one such showy moment before the guitars completely drop all distortion for a brief time and instead go for more of a folk orientation to work beside some whispered lyrics. The peace is shattered by the requisite heavy scream as the guitars go back into insane mode once more. It”™s a trick that has been done quite a few times before, but it”™s done so well that it should still get the appropriate head banging response. Some of the musician”™s non-metal influences start to shine through with more force on “Desolate Spheres” when a two minute re-tread of everything that had already come before on the album suddenly transforms into an incredibly daring composition that can only be described as jazzy and steamy.
By the time “Infinite Rotation” shows up, the listener may need a break because their face has been smashed in with a spiked gauntlet and then caressed by a silk sheet so many times in a row that a breather becomes necessary to be able to adequately digest everything going on. The members of Obscura haven”™t pulled the final rabbit out of their hat yet, as even more magic is to be made in the final songs of the album. “Noospheres” starts out with an atmospheric and toned down opening common to horror themed black metal and then moves into the more traditionally heavy guitar parts. Rather than keeping up the technicality of the previous songs it instead packs a heavy punch of melody and mood, which can be a welcome change after so much mind bending guitar prowess.
“Cosmogenesis” succeeds where others have failed because it doesn”™t stick exclusively to a barrage of sheer brutality or a never ending show of excessive technical skills. The album regularly dips into many different kinds of melodies to provide a much more well rounded experience. Each track is nearly perfectly layered together into a complete maelstrom of force that should make it onto the must have list of technical death metal fans. The only question is how will Obscura possibly top this with their next album?
Highs: Top-notch production, extreme technicality, brutal as hell, and a good dose of melody
Lows: There's almost too much to digest at once, the album may take multiple listens just to get everything out of it
Bottom line: A masterpiece of technical death metal with a good deal of non-metal influences that provides a very satisying musical experience
Rated 4.5 out of 5 skulls

Zitat:Das Line-up von Obscura liest sich seit dem letzten Stühlerücken wie das Who-is-Who im Technical Death Metal: Hannes Grossmann und Christian Muenzner (ex. Necrophagist) und Jeroen Paul Thesseling (ex. Pestilence) haben zum Jahreswechsel 2008 die Band um Leader Steffen Kummerer wieder komplettiert. Das klingt schon mal stark, aber ist es das auch?
Schon nach dem ersten Song auf dem Album ist eigentlich klar dass die Antwort nur "ja" heißen kann. Obscura begehen auf COSMOGENESIS nicht den Fehler, ausschließlich ihr technisches Können in den Vordergrund zu stellen, sondern beweisen auch Feingefühl in den Kompositionen. Den Fuß vom Gaspedal nehmen, weniger komplexe Riffs oder auch simplere ruhige Stellen - weniger ist manchmal mehr. Der ultrastarke Song "Universe Momentum" mit einigen kurzen Ausflügen in jazzigere Gefilde ist wie die Blaupause für das Konzept von Obscura.
Ganz stark auch das Bassspiel von Thesseling, der beweist, dass der Bass ein integraler Bestandteil der Songs sein kann. Zum Glück geht dies nicht in einem undefinierbaren Mix unter, sondern ist selbst dann, wenn sich die beiden Gitarristen wild mit Riffs beharken, klar und deutlich zu hören.
Eine Frage müssen sich die Jungs allerdings stellen lassen: wie wollt ihr das bitte auf Album Nummer drei überbieten?
Alexander Saur

(11.02.2009, 11:53)padrak schrieb: Und was bin ich dann? Kurz vor Kiste?

(11.02.2009, 12:27)Aasfresser schrieb: Ich bin halt ein Mittzwanziger, die ganze Welt liegt mir zu Füssen!

(11.02.2009, 12:31)PunkZERO schrieb: Netter Oldschool Death.