Obscura started their four part concept album series years ago with Cosmogenesis and now we finally see the conclusion with Diluvium, their brand new opus for Relapse Records. Once again tossing plenty of brutal, technical, and melodic death metal at the listener, band members Steffen Kummerer (Vocals/Guitar), Rafael Trujillo (Guitar), Linus Klausenitzer (Bass), and Sebastian Lanser (Drums) have delivered yet again a brilliant display of progressive sounds.
As we've seen in the past from this very talented band, Obscura drop in little bits of jazz fusion and spacey atmosphere along the way, and that is present once again here on Diluviun. Kummerer & Trujillo's guitar work is simply jaw dropping, completely mesmerizing the listener on the pulverizing title track, the groove laden yet pummeling "Clandestine Stars", and the highly progressive "Mortification of the Vulgar Sun", the latter complete with some raging extreme metal as well as gorgeous acoustic passages. What's equally amazing however are the velvety bass lines of Klausenitzer, who is just as upfront in the mix and is heard throughout the album blazing alongside his fellow string benders. This is just fantastic ensemble playing between these three no matter how you look at it. "Ethereal Skies" is just mindblowing, the trio laying down some sick unison lines while Lanser is flailing away underneath with some intricate drum fills...intense stuff! Kummerer's vocals throughout are a mix of perfectly enunciated death growls (nice to hear a death metal singer you can understand!) and eerie Cynic styled effects laden clean vocals, and while the 'vocoder' sounding vocal passages might sound too similar to the Florida legends for some, it's a nice touch in spots here. Perhaps the heaviest track here is "The Conjuration", a brutal piece with crushing guitar riffs and Lanser's jackhammer blast beats, which leads into the somewhat doom laden & moody "An Epilogue to Infinity", another highly textured track adorned with some booming guitar and more of those wonderful Klausenitzer bass lines.
Ultimately Diluvium is a fantastic way to end this lengthy concept saga that has taken the band through the better part of a decade, but it's also a great standalone release that sees the band at its most sophisticated as far as songwriting and musical execution. Progressive extreme metal doesn't get much better than this folks!
See more about this release on our recent YouTube show!
Track Listing
1. Clandestine Stars 03:38
2. Emergent Evolution 04:52
3. Diluvium 05:03
4. Mortification of the Vulgar Sun 06:10
5. Ethereal Skies 05:18
6. Convergence 04:04
7. Ekpyrosis 05:24
8. The Seventh Aeon 05:18
9. The Conjuration 05:34
10. An Epilogue to Infinity 06:16
11. A Last Farewell (Digital Bonus Track) 02:27
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