Obskurum
The Ceremony And The Descent
[Balanced Sound]
The blackened essence of hatred and impending doom is rarely heard these days. Long past are the days of which black metal assaulted all senses and sensibilities with out regard in it's journey on the left hand path. Obskurum are an entity that hearkens back to those lost and forgotten days. Packaged simply in a plain black sleeve with the logo of Obskurum and the words 'The Ceremony and The Descent' in small white print beneath, there is no ostentatious blasphemic artwork to detract from the ritual enclosed, nor any hint of what is yet to come.
Removing the cd itself from the packaging, a deep, yet very subtle bloodred glint emerges from the cd's playing surface in a certain light foreshadowing the intensity and emnity to come. The top of the cd is again plainly marked with the logo and the title of the ritual. Placing the cd in the machine results in 8 tracks being indicated, the sterility of the LED numbers belying the organic nature of the evil about to be loosed.
Press play, and a very raw and dirty sound atypical for the nowadays razor thin black metal stereotype assaults your ears. Earthy, but not muddy at all production brings to life the music. Conducting the ritual in a style of doomy depressive beats and mixture of ominous spoken and grim tortured vocals that are perfectly suited to the cyclical nature of the tube assisted minimal distortion guitar riffs, the songs create an almost visible aura of personal desolation and impending destruction around and through the listener. The songs aren't long epics, but the structure of the songs and their arrangement flow together to manipulate the listener, to draw in the psyche, to envelop, to corrupt, to crush light and hope and replace them with bleak nothingness and despair. No respite from this miasma of evil. Until Track 8; The Ceremony. Then the listener is subjected to their own funeral procession. The sorrowful requiem to their fallen aspirations, the endless journey to purgatory, frustration, anxiety, abyssicagony are all played out in perfect disharmony in this instrumental, a fitting end to this ritual.
Obskurum's performance upon this release perfectly encapsulates the essence and meaning their name implies. Atypical, powerful, and emotionally draining. Fully recommended.
contact: balancedsoundrecordings@yahoo.com
© 2003 grymyrk
Removing the cd itself from the packaging, a deep, yet very subtle bloodred glint emerges from the cd's playing surface in a certain light foreshadowing the intensity and emnity to come. The top of the cd is again plainly marked with the logo and the title of the ritual. Placing the cd in the machine results in 8 tracks being indicated, the sterility of the LED numbers belying the organic nature of the evil about to be loosed.
Press play, and a very raw and dirty sound atypical for the nowadays razor thin black metal stereotype assaults your ears. Earthy, but not muddy at all production brings to life the music. Conducting the ritual in a style of doomy depressive beats and mixture of ominous spoken and grim tortured vocals that are perfectly suited to the cyclical nature of the tube assisted minimal distortion guitar riffs, the songs create an almost visible aura of personal desolation and impending destruction around and through the listener. The songs aren't long epics, but the structure of the songs and their arrangement flow together to manipulate the listener, to draw in the psyche, to envelop, to corrupt, to crush light and hope and replace them with bleak nothingness and despair. No respite from this miasma of evil. Until Track 8; The Ceremony. Then the listener is subjected to their own funeral procession. The sorrowful requiem to their fallen aspirations, the endless journey to purgatory, frustration, anxiety, abyssicagony are all played out in perfect disharmony in this instrumental, a fitting end to this ritual.
Obskurum's performance upon this release perfectly encapsulates the essence and meaning their name implies. Atypical, powerful, and emotionally draining. Fully recommended.
contact: balancedsoundrecordings@yahoo.com
© 2003 grymyrk