asmox
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2004
- Posts
- 1,833
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- 15
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.
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.
