Obscura - Illegimitation review

Year : 2012
Genre : Cybernetic Black Metal, Technical Death Metal
Label : Relapse
Origin : Germany
Rating : 9.2 / 10

Relapse shoots an Obscura compilation towards your way through an illegal space-time rift, and this is not the worst thing that can happen to you. This German formation, while now it is one of the premiere technical death metal acts the source of all things cares to regard as its own, had its fair share of different musical directions cultivated in its past.

The Illegimination compilation spin-package is a tasteful choice to familiarize yourself with the anatomy of the music that was the source the current variant of the band's language been born amidst. This package gives you 48 minutes of fragmented Obscura activity, ranging from 2003 to 2011. Read on to find out more about this compilation.


The disc is divided into three parts, each dedicated to a certain period. (Of the band, you know?) The first four tracks belong to the Illegimitation demo, released in 2003. These declarations have a keen affection towards traditional black metal, yet the production values are more bombastic and punchy than the general shape of the subgenre cares to dictate, if, at all. Indeed, black metal is ready to work even with modest production values, once the notes are played with the "right" - ha. - mindset.

I tend to think that Obscura's early interest in black metal partly was fueled by the band's curiosity of how black metal would sound if being resonated through steroids, and the results are pretty convincing. Unmistakably the black kind of metal, with an occasional propensity to turn into a blackened kind of death metal during the latter section of the first segment of the record.

Throughout the second region of the disc, that which gives you three robust tracks to showcase fine entries from the preproduction era of Cosmogenesis, - we are in 2006 - the band's readiness to render complexity for the mere-, admirable sake of it, is more pronounced. The death metal tint is more infectious this time around, yet the flow of the music chooses to settle and keep one foot on the field of black. Initially, at least. A propensity to offer instrumental breaks bordering on dignified, epic power metal of cheese-free beauty is notable, while the black metal riffage is revealed with the attitude of the death subgenre. The consecutive and the third addition from this class are stone-orthodox death metal entries with pig squeals and whatnot. The music still kicks all kinds of monumental butts, oftentimes exhibiting a particularly rabid groove metal character. Philip Anselmo approves. The fractal complexity that Obscura gets famous of in a future that these songs keep in store for the band, are "but" promises for now.

The third-, and concluding session of this compilation LP gives you three covers of various - uhm - other bands. A Death, an Atheist, and a Cynic cover, all recorded in a session that took place in 2011. Highly legit deliveries that do not seek to blame the subject matter, they instead adore and praise them with true interest in their respective forms and anatomy. If you are not yet familiar with Obscura, then this compilation is a good starting point to remedy the situation, while obtaining Omnivium will give you an insight of the recent-, technical death metal attitude of this eminent German ensemble.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Spawn of Possession - Incurso review

Year : 2012
Genre : Technical Death Metal
Label : Relapse
Origin : Sweden
Rating : 9.3 / 10

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Spawn of Possession's Incurso is a robust technical death metal release with 52 minutes of - not at all surprisingly - super-intense fractal complexity. The Sweden ensemble of illustrious characters put together a delivery which is a worthy flow of ripost to what the recent era of this exceptionally demanding subgenre has graced upon us.

Obscura, Gorod and Blotted Science are quick to come to mind when witnessing the rampant ways of this delivery, which, no doubt, has the obscene amount of work in it that, make no mistake, a technical death metal release necessarily demands during its own creation process, during its own evolution. Read on to find out more about this slick rebellion against silence.


The miserable critic finds itself in a pleasant position when graced by such eminent content as this disc is, as the music on this record simply reigns above the tools of criticism, regardless of the - phah! - sophistication level of those tools. The reason behind this is simple enough : technical death metal, when done even "remotely properly", is able to reveal such a pronounced index finger into the face of the epitome of all expectations, that the causality of being subjected to seemingly random-, but, in reality, extremely rigorously organized sonic content, to THIS very day equates to one of the most intense listening experiences a human nervous system can go through.

Technical death metal is a bitch AND a very mean at that, because it tolerates no lies, nor shortcuts. It only tolerates the pair of desire and devotion to submit to the steep urge to flatter the blind potentiality of chaos, with intent to draw million eyes and million faces for it, and pay for its intricate patterns with Godzilla workhours. In short, technical death metal already is in the position that it tolerates ONLY top of the heat audio content, no exceptions.

Everything less and anything less kills this music on spot. All bands that are playing technical death metal, need to create top of the heat content, because the standards already are super-high, courtesy of central declarations of the subgenre. As such, there is no need-, nor method for me on my part to "properly" tell you about the technical death metal music you will find on this spin, because words are not capable to reflect the experience of this music. All I can say, is that it is legit technical death metal, and that is NOT the same as saying it is legit power metal. I guarantee you that you will find a legit power metal band in every closet, you just need to search for a bit.

Delivering in this genre is much more demanding than, say, to create a superb progressive metal album, in which orthodox methodologies to narrate a musical thought, are totally acceptable. (Hell, even James LaBrie is totally acceptable in progressive metal!) In technical death metal, only intricately revealed chaos is acceptable, and everything else is dishonesty towards the intent-, towards the mission of this music. Beethoven is a technical death metal musician, have zero doubt about that, ladies and gentlemen.

This record brings intricately sculpted sonic chaos for 52 minutes. The experience, as hinted, is reminiscent in nature to the music you will find on the other great releases I have linked the review of for you in the intro section of this text. This sonic declaration of Spawn of Possession is greeted by its similarly monumental peers as a worthy partner to glorify the technical death metal subgenre with. The minds behind these albums are contemporary musical heroes willing to put tremendous workhours to bring you this level of deliciously obscene sonic intricacy, and you need to check them out as soon as possible, in my opinion.

Rating : 9.3 / 10

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Revocation - Chaos of Forms review

Year : 2011
Genre : Technical Death Thrash Metal
Label : Relapse
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Revocation is one super-eminent representative of a new breed of extreme music that sounds both relentlessly rabid AND eloquent at that. Everyone with imagination and ears accessible have the capacity to make up fine inner music that is out - oops - to destruct all things on sight, but the realization of such an avid flow of aural stimulus takes vast amount of diligent work. With its third full length silence massacre, Revocation unleashes monumental heft, and makes sure it does not lose steam during the 46 minutes it has the fuel for.

Chaos of Forms, in its mere nature, sounds to be a similar output than the latest of that of fellow thrasher group Deceased, in a sense that both installments consciously chose to utterly reject shortcuts and compositional methods a composer could live and sleep well without being voodooed by the masses. Instead, each and every second you will be graced with top of the heat sonic content that rains into you without any need on its part to rely on such standard presentational solutions as repetition or the introduction of "showsaver-hooks", so to speak. There is truly no need for them, if and when an entire album is one huge hook to pull you over its own body without inquiring about the state of your taste and safety. Read on to find out how this album kicks your ass a million ways in any given moment it rides on the volume by.


Revocation's Chaos of Forms is a bottomless treasure chest of superbly sculpted riffs and rhythms that know no no other King to bow down to than the mere flamboyancy they command to exist to triumph by. The intricacy of the content herein is so beautifully rabid and convoluted that the building blocks of one single track of the release could easily serve as a massive sequence in the body of a much less ambitious-, and STILL totally solid spin. The record simply can not be caught repeating itself, as delicious extremities are handing the door knob over to the other, always maintaining a continuous flow of sonic developments in which the common demeanor is the stone-sober faithfulness to seriously researched and manically presented intensity.

The album, needless to say, knows and brilliantly abuses every single mood of the extreme you have ever noticed to crave your attention, and it is the arrangements themselves that separate this record from the flock : you surely must have heard double bass before, but it is one thing to submit to its brutal charm having no gap to form an other choice on, and it is an entirely different matter to witness the double bass revealing its stupendous True Character, a much lifting result of avoiding the constant use of it. Revocation, quite wisely, keeps the double bass among the tools that guarantee the flawless operation of the 111% Thrashing Mode, and once it engages, it truly emerges as a row of mountain-sized bulldozers without drivers, rumbling into your awareness.

An important clarification needs to be made, and here it is : Chaos of Forms, in nature, is an extremely aggressive album, yet this is a rigorously and skillfully controlled, eloquent form of aggression that knows the limits and entertainment value of its respective charms well enough to not subject its absorber to any one those charms for too long. As such, there is a whole lot to be absorbed here, because every second of the release comes with the intent to present you stuff that is beyond doubt worth to be absorbed.

This is the shit.

The record has segments of monumental mid-tempos, exceptionally elegant guitar solos and some absolutely hilarious sequences that border on the vibe of easily accessible hard rock riding on an adrenalin rocket and waving two chainsaws, but bear in mind that these sequences are reigning way beyond the gesture of filling out the showtime with some cozily digestible stuff. Instead, whatever the band comes into contact with, it turns it into a golem of gold and commands it to thrash its surroundings ASAP.

With an immense aural contribution that pretty much cultivates a secret love for experimental extreme while remaining absolutely true to its primordial intent to flatten stuff out first, Revocation - Chaos of Forms is the extreme music you KNEW should have existed. Only know : it does.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Rainroom - And the Other, that was a Machine review

Year : 2011
Genre : Death / Doom hybrid
Label : Relapse
Origin : Finland
Rating : 7.5 / 10

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Finnish death / doom hybrid Rainroom represents a musical consortium in which both its key participants - death and doom - are having exquisite fun with each other. Alas, it also is an unbalanced record, as 12+ of its 43 minutes are likely to give you sequences by which you can quite safely and peacefully give the green light on saliva pouring from your corner of your mouth to the pillow. This record is "death" only in the sense that it features totally full blown, integrally presented death metal vocals : growls, hauls, guttural, you know the death deal. But, here is the catch, and the dramatic turn of events! Instead of backing the death metal vocals up with traditional death having a rampant run in the background, Rainroom hits you with the kind of doom metal that - thank God and Co.! - still did not give up the will to exist. In other words : and yet it moves, and yet it lives.

The first track of this LP, called "...yeah, many machines", is a profound and efficient example of what the plan is. These growling/hauling death metal vocals are arranged over lively doom metal music which is in its autonomous and epically gloomy hurry to reach its favorite place to suffer on, - on this track, that is - and the ensuing aural experience will likely have a truly significant, lifting and positive effect on you. Or not. It does exhibit this effect on me every time I hear it. It is just hilarious and so logical, the relentless misery of death metal anger being supported by doom metal that seems to despise this level of misery-extroversion, and now it still is ready to hear it out, like a psychoanalyst female giving a session for the rampant reaper while it has one of its favorite nervous breakdowns. Read on to find out how the session went.



Rainroom's And the Other, that was a Machine, has a tamely, but elegantly presented steampunk theme to it, and you only have two choices regarding steampunk : you have to love it, or you have to love it in a manic fashion. Which, granted, may be self-explanatory.

Truth is, that the first track of the LP sounds to be more ripe of a creation than its follow-up, called Abort Engine, which is a much more undisciplined build initially, and it is having this fixated pastime of smashing your awareness against any single wall it comes across. The effective riffing, the structure of things to be found herein though, are not strong enough to claim validation of the act of smashing you around for this long. Probably the least successful track on the LP, and its more peaceful demeanor in the climax does not sound to do all that much noticeable justice to it, either. The tender part sounds more like an alibi, a cover story, and not content you can wholeheartedly regard as relevant, not when measured to the ripeness and the integrity of the stupendous first track "...yeah, many machines".

The similar initial percepts arise with the third track, called Loew Machine, and these impressions decide to stick around for no less than five minutes. What threatens to be another mid-tempo convolution, gets assuaged by legit instrumental saving graces found to be embedded in the track's midsection to its end. That body though is about three times as big as it would still look acceptably hot with/in. Track number four, called Steam Conjecture once again draws a clear and truly vibrant picture : following a flamboyant intro section that also incorporates the goal of preparing you for the Thing that Comes, super-heavyweight doom metal indeed relentlessly arises and demands a stop from time, then addresses its supreme misery of gargantuan proportions with top notch death metal singing to flatter it. And, following a short and elegant interlude to draw your attention away, the exact focal theme comes back to claim your soul with brisker, but still heavy as the tenderness of two bisexual gorillas-type mid-tempo rhythmization. This is a clearly sorrowful song at heart, and the magic arises as result that now there are monster-instruments that unconditionally submit to the charm of the beautiful/sorrowful harmonic pattern, which reigns as the core meaning of the track. This one is the same caliber as the opening contribution, and it is just a pity that two wasteland-fillers are separating them.

Rainroom is a band you want to keep an eye on, (just make sure you have something to wipe the slime off with) and this debut shows sufficient amount of brilliance to regard the relative tedium it spends in the dark via its midsection clearly redeemable.

Rating : 7.5 / 10

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Toxic Holocaust - Conjure and Command review

Year : 2011
Genre : Thrash Metal
Label : Relapse Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 6.5 / 10

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Toxic Holocaust delivers an album that approaches its objectives with a notable urge to get the job done as swiftly as possible. With its 37 minutes of larger than life intensity, the spin has a solid chance to pull this mission off successfully. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and not necessarily good, either. While the agenda herein simply is to unleash destruction mode right from the beginning of each and every track, the construction of the path that is leading to destruction, still reigns as one of the most flatterable ingredients of the genre, and also as one you simply will find NONE of on this release. However, if what you want is a thrash metal pill that is armed and ready to take you to the intense side of the style, then this spin might be exactly what you are looking for.

Conjure and Command is instant-, and highly traditional, dare we say, conservative thrash metal, an affair that does everything you will likely conceive as essential requirements to satisfy your anticipations regarding intense thrashing, yet never quite leaves you with the feeling of getting entirely bewildered and satisfied by what you have heard. Take it, this IS what you wanted, isn't it? Here are the ingredients. What is wrong, what more, what else could you want? These are legitimate questions that need to be addressed thoroughly. Read more to find out if there are such things. Or aren't.


Toxic Holocaust attempts to fix your thrash needs by moderate-, and above average efforts, at best. The riffs pack acceptable character, yet seldom are the times by which they will punish you with a proper bite to remember. Seldom is not the same as never. The riff work sometimes DOES deliver stunning moments, - the middle section riffing in the track called The Liars Are Burning is an example, but hell, this sounds more like Pantera grooving than thrashing - but these sequences are rare to find. For the majority of the playtime, you will be subjected to riffs that doubtlessly have a very organic connection with the drums, but they tend to stick to their rigorous comfort zones right after revealing their respective character. Fortunately, the members of Toxic Holocaust have a sharp sense of awareness regarding the lifespan and entertainment value of a given idea, and have no problem whatsoever selling variation for you, without you even noticing you are buying it.

These variations though tend to rely solely on tempo change, and this change in tempo sounds to be regarded by the band as an act that should automatically make you content with what you have been just subjected to. The riffage does not succeed at impressing on a constant and restless basis. Sometimes it devastates, and then again, sometimes it tends to submit to the mere act of the consecutive tempo change, taking the role of a background filler, with some alibi-notes thrown in the riff's fabric here and there, in a desperate attempt at trying to fool you of its own mimicked complexity and cunning. The moods and territories the band does arrive back on after a warp, though always are acceptable, rarely reign stunning enough to rip your mind out nice and clean, - aua - regardless how you want THAT, first and foremost. While the visceral feel of the spin has a ripe understanding and handling of its own dynamics, it exhibits mixed results at finding the spots you want to-, you NEED to revisit. The track Nowhere to run is a peak moment of the album, while the consecutive one, I am Disease sounds to be a mediocre Sad but True clone worth a smile on Christmas eve.

The greatest downside to this album though, is the vocal contribution. Frankly, it is very uneventful and packs only ONE register, and it lacks all sort of playfulness, dark appeal or notable character. A disillusioned, tightened-throat nervous breakdown, the one you hear from your neighbor when his lawnmower gives out on him under this killing sun. Thank you, come again.

Despite the above addressed inconsistencies of this release, and, beyond the disappointing vocal performance, Toxic Holocaust's Conjure and Command still remains a very acceptable and brisk thrash affair, one that gives you a kind of instant thrash that does everything that is needed to be done. But nothing more.

Rating : 6.5 / 10

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Obscura - Omnivium review

Year : 2011
Genre : Technical Death Metal
Label : Relapse Records
Origin : Germany
Rating : 9.2 / 10

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German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling contributed an immense body of work to bath a curious mind in, while it comes as a rather interesting development if and when his lamentations regarding nature and spirit serve as a primal inspirational source to frame a musical declaration around.

It is nothing less than the rigorous, yet playful establishment of fractal level musical complexity what German death (?) metal formation Obscura has gotten itself into during the preceding years of the release of Omnivium, an output that has all the chance in the cosmic void and beyond to raise the bar for consecutive deliveries that dare to eye towards, or venture into musical fields characterized by radical intricacy happening for the mere sake of celebrating the ensuing audio pattern's capacity to exist and to entertain. This is nothing less than the celebration of life, the celebration of information.



A function, perhaps, one of the most important one of life, paradoxically is to find the ultimate function and related benefits of its mere existence, that which necessarily enriches its surroundings simply by observing it and making inner-directed, and even outward-directed notions of it. Regardless of the intention in the action, the fabric in which the action or thought takes place in, is suddenly enriched by the act or thought, and there is no real knowing on the human actor's part if his action or even thought made any kind of permanent and/or truly relevant impact in the mere space-time he operates in. One thing seems to be sure, though : as he acted or created a thought, information was born, and this constant birth, infinite birth and infinite rapid evolution of information seems to be an inescapable attribute of - well - inescapable information, that which shapes us and that which we constantly shape by our thoughts, actions and emotions.

To cite the classic :

shit lives forever,
shit lives forever
you can't kill it,
you can't kill it

- Faith No More

Before you would assume that this will be a philosophical stare into a random sonic abyss, let's conclude this introductory section to Obscura's Omnivium by abusing the quite safely abusable, noting that life indeed seems to be persistently mysterious and a phenomena worth investigating, - not that you have much of a choice right now, anyway - especially so when this investigation takes place through audible transmissions intentionally arranged into carefully engineered musical complexity that indeed flirts with any casual fractal chaoses that comes along its infinite ways.

Omnivium is a constant assault on your mere awareness of processing audible data, as the traditional elements of the genre bring with itself a muscular musical build formed out of riffs that have seen and got obsessed by and with a musical language that exhibits no particular desire to offer you a hook or two to safely grasp unto. Omnivium slides you around on its convolutely fragmented wall of sound fabric as it seems fit, and you find yourself to be the enjoyer of the experience, simply by attempting to decipher the massive amount of audible stimuli waging their valiant war on your receptors. Odd time signatures and free spirited melodic lines complimenting each other in the background are among the most frequent occurrences you will behold herein, and even the more easily approachable grooves have the tendency to playfully throw themselves and dissolve into the fractal chaos for a ride or two, thus their returning into a triumphant reassemblement will serve both as guide and a compass during the vortexes of sound storms you will be subjected to during the spin of the release.

Obscura speaks a carefully selected variety of musical moods on Omnivium, the pivotal elements being a fluent and free spirited neo-classical approach, primarily utilized to give you short breaks from the aforementioned fractal craze, that which serves as ever-present threat-constant during the experience, as you won't ever be sure when it is about to take you again for a stroll in itself. The moments it does take you by, are the moments that do draw the archetypical face of Omnivium.

A cunningly presented haunting feel also is incorporated into the mood palette, which wisely stays away from seeking cheap instant terror on you, and flirts instead with the mere mysterious, placing you into a tale full of secrets and unknown nearby potentialities, luckily showing zero interest in scares and negativistic tendencies. The end portion of the track "A Transcendental Serenade" is a great example for this feeling : it seems to be evident that the ensuing melody - that actually has a hook, it IS one big hook, in fact - tells about something that has a crushing relevance, but this relevance also seems to be one that reigns way beyond the intention of good old fashioned destruction for the mere sake of good old fashioned destruction. Of life. Of you. As long as you keep an open mind, the experience, the entity the music is about, will do no harm in you.

Omnivium's lyrics are preoccupied with intimate inner lamentations regarding consciousness and its surroundings, oftentimes arriving at interesting notions that seem to seek to exhibit poetic qualities. Obscura's delivery is one that manages to keep you fully interested and engaged during the 59 minutes ride it takes you on, and also one that flirts with musical vistas that are essential to investigate for the supreme purpose of entertainment, which seems to be a rather legit function of life on its own.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

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