#52 - Obscura

Back to Germany for the fifth time with the excellent technical death metal band Obscura.  These guys got their start in 2002, but it wasn't until 2009, when they burst on the scene with their sophomore album, Cosmogenesis, that I caught wind of them.  Apparently, founder Steffen Kummerer had looted more established bands Necrophagist (drummer Hannes Grossmann and guitarist Christian Münzner) and Pestilence (bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling) in time to record the Relapse Records release, and it was shockingly good: tight, original, frenetic, technical and at times beautiful.  All four musicians are top-notch players, and the new members each brought something crucial to the album's fresh sound: Grossmann's killer chops and facility with a variety of styles, techniques and time signatures, Münzner's unorthodox approach to melody and soloing, and Thesseling's rich and groovy fretless bass sound.

In 2011, Obscura released their third album entitled Omnivium, and to my ears, it's even superior to its excellent predecessor.  I'm including the song "Vortex Omnivium" which is the shortest and one of the most energetic tracks on the album.  This tune is such a kick... after a three bar introduction in which the drums cover about 1500 notes, they suddenly cut out (4 seconds into the song) for the first bar of the jagged, complex and yet catchy main riff.  It's kind of like one of those chase scenes where the car goes airborne in slow motion and the frantic backing music cuts out while it soars through the air only to redouble upon impact as the car continues careening through the poor and unsuspecting city.  Only there's not a lot of slow motion here.  The break lasts less than a second and then it's breakneck playing through the verse (beginning at 0:20), the Gregorian-chant-like bridge (0:37), the chorus over the main riff again (0:46) until finally slowing down over a funky (but still busy) groove (at 1:04) that continues with some really tasty bass playing and some softer, more melodic soloing.  After the solo, check out one of my favorite moments at 2:23 where the fretless bass takes over.  At 2:32, it gets into a twisty jam in some ungodly meter which builds in orchestration back to a recapitulation (3:12) of the verse, bridge and chorus followed by a 4 second coda and we're done.  A ton of meat crammed into a nifty little 4:13 package.  Strap in and give it a listen, and, as always, please let me know what you think.