Reviewing technical death metal is always a double-edged sword, on the one hand, it sounds ace, but it requires some sort of advanced music qualification just to try and explain what on earth is going on. Anything labelled tech or prog is setting a pretty high bar for oneself, tech can often be an excuse for a band to push themselves to such heights of fretboard gymnastics it becomes inaccessible to most listeners, and prog can often descend into a ‘make sure you include the kitchen sink’ tick box exercise that it becomes formulaic.

Obscura are very well respected on the scene, precisely because they manage to mix together a potent blend of tech, prog, and melodic elements into their death metal sound without falling foul of its genre pitfalls. Releasing their fifth album Diluvium, on Relapse Records, Obscura manage to deftly navigate the challenging path they’ve set themselves.

Diluvium pushes their sound yet at the same time also revisits their earlier albums in places. They’ve done a very good job at organising the chaos with Diluvium, tracks such as the blistering opener ‘Clandestine Stars’, ‘Convergence’ and ‘Conjuration’ are more accessible compositions than prior albums.

‘Mortification of the Vulgar Sun’, and title track ‘Dilvium’ bring the heaviness in abundance, and there are plenty of standout tracks on the album, but the real standouts on this aren’t any particular tracks. The musicianship is top notch, the rhythm section is absolutely spectacular, even by the genre’s own astronomically high standards, the drumming from Sebastian Lanser is a masterclass, combined with Linus Klausenitzer‘s Bass work the foundation is set for Rafael Trujillo and Steffen Kummerer‘s guitar work to let the album take flight throughout the stars.

There are still some elements which let it down slightly, some of the production work and choices of tones seem like odd choices, with a little too much of a sci-fi feel at times. Slightly over-processed vocals work well on the whole, but at times it feels like clean vocals would have worked so much better. There are also brief times during solo work whereby the bass tone is a little too processed and doesn’t have the rich depth of tone it deserves.

However, these are very minor gripes. On the whole, this album is a definite highlight in a genre which can be difficult to stand out in. ‘Diluvium’ is a very strong album, and is their best work probably since ‘Cosmogenesis’. If you’ve not heard them before then this is definitely a great album to start with.

 

8.5/10

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