Gorguts - Obscura ... fans of metal need to listen at least once, preferably twice

[asmox]

I don't really know where to start with this album.

First and foremost, I want to say that in the case of Gorguts, the answer to 'What's in a name?' is - 'absolutely nothing'. Unless you're referring to the name of the album, in which case - 'absolutely everything'.

It's death metal.. sort of. It's brutal, unrelenting, unfriendly, and extreme. In fact, I'm pretty sure this goes beyond extreme. However, it's also so unorthodox, strange, unique, and chaotic that it would make more sense to look at it as an extremely heavy form of experimental free jazz than it would to look at it as another member among the ranks of conventional death metal albums that exist out there (which coincidentally include Gorguts' other albums).

Generally speaking, I'm not a stranger to extreme and technical metal, but I had trouble figuring out what kind of audience, exactly, this creation was intended for. It's far too harsh to attract those who are only familiar with heavy music in a general sense, yet at the same time it's so hard to associate anything on this album with any form of established metal that even die-hard metalheads would probably keep their distance. Obscura destroys any and all metal clichés that I can think of.. everything is pushed to the limits - the brutality, the technicality, the construction (and deconstruction) of highly discordant progressions.. it all comes together to form some kind of otherworldly chaos fusion theory.

The guitars emit some seriously low, highly dissonant tones in obfuscated patterns that may sometimes resemble something you might be able to call a riff.. and when the riffs do come down, they could probably pass for the soundtrack to oblivion. The guitars in general produce some downright twisted, alien, and atonal sounds. The morphing metarhythms produced by the drummer sort of wander around on their own plane of existence, ignoring any sense of a natural tempo.. though calling anything on Obscura "natural" is pushing it. Everything is oh so deliberate. Dizzyingly odd intervals, extremely irregular sort-of-there-but-not-really beats, constantly shifting meters, a strange sense of counterpoint, and a destructive lack of harmony. On top of that, the vocals sound like somebody is literally tearing their mind into pieces in front of the microphone.. probably the most violent, agonizing, and painful vocals I've ever heard. It's hard to not wonder just what in the world is going on as you listen to this for the first time. Are these guys insane? You'll probably think so your first time through the album (and depending on your level of exposure and tolerance for music like this, perhaps your second time through as well, and your third, and fourth, and.. well, assuming you even get that far).

That's the thing, though.. I don't believe music like "this" exists outside of Obscura. At least, I've never heard it. This is completely new and unique to me. While there are many "avant-garde" metal bands out there who create schizophrenic genre trips with elaborate arrangements, all of them, well.. to be straightforward.. they all seem very gimmicky and trivial when compared to the enigmatic intensity of Obscura.

Another nice thing about this album is that, unlike many tech/death albums, this one isn't 30 minutes long. It's a bit over an hour, which could be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it. Also, despite the band's name, they don't have much to do with either gore or guts. In fact, their lyrics - while not wrapped in indecipherable poetry - are generally intelligent.

The worst thing about this album is the way it makes you look at everything else. Obscura is one of those albums that redefines the way a fundamental aspect of music works, it's an album that redefines and warps your very conception of the art form. In fact, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who wouldn't even call this music, but an hour of random noises.. though I personally think that an hour of random noises would sound more natural and pleasing than the surreal intensity that constitutes this album. It makes everything else looks overly tame, and all that stuff that you thought was so great and esoteric seems.. normal.

Anyway, this review was sort of hard to write, since there's absolutely nothing to draw a comparison to (oddly enough, the most common line that I have seen drawn from this album is to Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica). None of the tech, death, or avant-garde that I have heard could have prepared me for this. Obscura defies the very genre it embodies, while at the same time bending it to its own twisted will.

I'll finish by saying that anybody who's into death metal should listen to this album at least once, if not own it. Everybody else, well.. open your mind, fasten your seatbelt, and be prepared for some of the strangest, deepest, and most difficult music you will ever hear.

..

On a more amusing note, I read a comment on another site claiming that this album sounds like a bunch of guys throwing their instruments down a staircase and recording it. Though in some indirect way that may be an accurate summary, all I can say is that despite what it sounds like, it is still music, and upon repeated listens the jarring contradiction of it all should begin to make sense.. no matter how ugly it may seem at first.

edit:

Oh, on another note - Luc Lemay and Steeve Hurdle, vocalists/guitarists from Gorguts, have joined forces with the bassist from Ion Dissonance and the drummer from Augury to form the band Negativa.. which is supposed to expand on what Gorguts started with Obscura.

I'm definitely going to look into that. The Canadian metal scene just got a whole lot more interesting for me.

[Enverxis]

Muhahaha, sounds right up my alley

[Masonjar]

I saw them around 1993 with Atheist and Cannibal Corpse. They were a pretty run-of-the-mill death metal band along the lines of Grave or early Entombed. I had heard that they had "evolved" but I hadn't had the chance to check them out. Sounds like I should bump them up a few notches on my wish list.

-jar

[jonnywolfet]

yeah, i have a couple of thier older albums which are standard brutal death. whilst passing a record store today i popped in to give this a listen, and ended up buying it! on the 3rd listen, it keeps geting better!
cheers for the heads-up asmox!

[lmilhan]

Thanks for the warning!

[asmox]

Originally Posted by lmilhan

Thanks for the warning!

Originally Posted by lmilhan's signature

My musical preferences:
Metal of all flavors

Perhaps not?

Just pulling your chain.. Obscura definitely isn't for everybody, and that may be even more true for metalheads who resign themselves to prog/power (which I believe you do, if I recall your many listings correctly) or actually any other strict subset of metal, since Obscura does a superb job of completely breaking down all preconceptions and expectations.

[Error]

Ah, thanks for reminding me of this album Asmox! Your post inspired me to dig the album out and give it a spin, and it's still as good as ever. Obscura is hands down Gorgut's crowning achievement, and shows a fairly remarkable change between in the five years since The Erosion of Sanity. Generally I'm not a fan of the incredibly straightforward style and general repetitiveness that a lot of brutal death metal bands fall prey to *Cough* Cannibal Corpse *Cough*, so it's always refreshing to see something intelligent and truly innovative come out of the genre. A great deal of bands possess exceptional levels of technicality, but so many of them fail to capitalize on their skill and produce anything compelling.

[Iron_Dreamer]

Originally Posted by Error

Generally I'm not a fan of the incredibly straightforward style and general repetitiveness that a lot of brutal death metal bands fall prey to

This is what has kept me from getting into much of the death metal I've heard. Only Carcass, Dark Tranquillity, and Death have really stuck with me. This album certainly sounds intriguing though.

[infinitesymphony]

How does this compare to something like Meshuggah's Catch 33?

[asmox]

Originally Posted by infinitesymphony

How does this compare to something like Meshuggah's Catch 33?

In the words of another poster on another forum.. 'Obscura makes Meshuggah obsolete'.

I love Meshuggah, they're one of my favorite metal bands.. but on Obscura, Gorguts screw around with rhythm, melody, and harmony in such bizzare and jarring ways that even the guys in Meshuggah would stop for a second look.

As for a direct comparison to Catch 33.. might as well be a whole other world. Where Catch 33 slowly but steadily progresses through shifting permutations of a familiar rhythmic structure, Obscura is a violent trip through the construction and deconstruction of the very concept of rhythm. Where Jens Kidman's vocals on Catch 33 are aggressive yet also sensible, the vocals on Obscura are utterly agonizing mayhem. Where Thordendal's leads on many Meshuggah records sound like Alan Holdsworth plugged into the SkyNet supercomputer, the "leads" on Obscura are collections of discordant, alien noises and impossible patterns that I don't believe were ever meant to come out of a guitar. The levels of sheer intensity between the two records are incomparable.

That being said, I think Meshuggah fans would appreciate Obscura.