Oblomov is a trio hailing from the Czech Republic who play a unique and exciting blend of black and death metal fused with spacey elements of avant-garde. Mighty Cosmic Dances is the group's latest offering which finds them drawing lyrical inspiration from some of the most respected writers from the Science Fiction genre. In setting these tales of space to music the band chose to merge moments of chaos with elegance to create a fantastically intoxicating listen.
There are plenty of musical highlights to be found on this disc and while the total running time clocks in at just a shade under 40 minutes the band tires to make the most of every moment. After the dreamy and very cosmic sounding beginning "Into The R.O." no time is wasted as the band leaps forward into the brutally fast and pounding attack of "Mentality Failure" which with it's frequent tempo changes and melodic guitar work by Pavel Dlabaja adds a nice contrast to the otherwise harsh and razor sharp delivery of vocalist Honza Vanek. They even add some simple keyboards in towards the end which takes the song to its conclusion. No time to let up as the next song up "Redefinition of the Past" begins as a mid tempo track which again features some precise and multi tracked soloing throughout and also highlights the real nice, thick and crisp bass sound which comes through superbly in the mix over the various tempo changes. On the third and fourth tracks are where Oblomov throw a few curveballs into their sound. "Lost Between Emotions" features a sax break about 40 seconds in that reminded me of something Ian McDonald might have laid down in King Crimson. The next track "Starsend" continues to find the band seeking out new sonic territory as they add layers of keyboards and some more sax to provide more depth and color to the track. This song has already managed to get the band some attention with a free pressing of 15,000 copies being distributed worldwide and its no secret why they chose this song as it's probably the strongest one on the CD. The last 3 tracks don't hold up creatively to the rest of the disc and it sounds like they started to run out of ideas a little bit as the latter half just didn't grab me like the first half did.
I think Oblomov have enormous potential and if they continue to explore different sonic landscapes then look for even more exciting music from them in the future. If they were to maybe mix up their vocal style a bit by adding clean vocals to some songs, I think they would be even more successful in taking their sound to the next level. That being said there is still enough on Mighty Cosmic Dances to make people pay attention and take notice of these talented up and comers.
Track Listing
1) Into the R.O
2) Mentality Failure
3) Redefinition of the Past
4) Lost Between Emotions
5) Starsend
6) The Plague
7) Nostalgic Idealization
8) Dreamworks
9) Out of the R.O.
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