Progressive-technical-death-metal.

The list for some of these bands’ tags and genre definitions seems to be as long as an Immortal song title. However, sometimes we just have to succinctly categorize some bands so as to alleviate any confusion among the masses, Mother forbid they actually hear something outside the scope and find a new movement to engage, but I digress. Germany’s Obscura releases its third full-length in Omnivium, a proficient and exemplary taste of death metal that appeals to the thinker and the musician on every level of the psyche.  

Steffen Kummerer handles both guitars and vocals for this band and provides another well-oiled mechanism that is a leap above Cosmogenesis, but right in line with the debut, Retribution. I admit to being a huge Kummerer fan, especially of his other project, Thulcandra, so when he stamps his name to something I’m always ready to be impressed. I have heard a little buzz about this album and was anxious to be able to sit down with my head clear of peripheral issues and ingest it in total compliance. What I am treated to is a technically-sound death metal venture that just levels the towns around it. One listens to the near-perfect quality of songs like “Velocity”, “Aevum” and “Septuagint” and he or she knows precisely what you’re there for with Omnivium. The hissing growl of the vocals during “Ocean Gateways” is quite sinister and delegates a true sense of foreboding to the room you’re in; the music behind it supplements the feel by being both expertly played and arranged.

This album, in a few words, simply tears the lid off the canister. This is a brutally fast record that doesn’t relent or submit in the slightest, yet is produced to a level of razor-edged brilliance. The trick with creating death metal music is to produce quality songs in as fine a presentation as possible without losing the typical ‘death’ muddle that is ever-present in the genre. When you add technicality to the mix you can feasibly get away with some liberties, and Obscura not only gets away with said liberties, they twist them into form and produce…this! The guitar work is absolutely mind-blowing; you can hear all of the initial brutality still emanating from the chord structures that border on elegant, they’re so terrific. The drums and bass keep perfect time with the flow of tracks like “Prismal Dawn” that should make even the most apt pupil of Dream Theater stop and take notice. I also love the clean tone vocals of “Celestial Spheres” amidst all of the fury that this album holds during every second of its duration. This is the style of music Opeth should have been playing before they decided corporate shill was the better avenue, but there’s always a band out there to hold up the flags when another tires or falls down dead.

Steffen Kummerer has the absolute understanding of what metal music was built on and where it needs to go, so if the man decides to put out a damn children’s opera about the merits of sock puppets as world leaders you can bet it’s going to be of a chaotic exuberance the likes of which we may not be prepared for, and that’s what makes Obscura’s Omnivium a classic in the realm.

I already see my Top Ten list bursting at year’s end.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Septuagint
2.  Vortex Omnivium
3.  Ocean Gateways
4.  Euclidean Elements
5.  Prismal Dawn
6.  Celestial Spheres
7.  Velocity
8.  A Transcendental Serenade
9.  Aevum

Total playing time:  54:15

Release Date: March 29, 2011
Label: Relapse Records

Obscura - Omnivium

Reviewer: Chris

April 20, 2011