Obscura - A Sonication

Angry Metal Guy

As an institution of modern death metal, Obscura albums arrive to eager metalheads with anticipation, accolades, and, well, a little controversy.¹ The German workhorse Steffan Kummerer (Thulcandra) and his assembled (and frequently flushed) roster of seasoned and sensational performers continue to deliver bombastic material while deviating down paths of structural simplification. Though the path of increasing hippitude often appeals to aging, progressive musical minds—think the Cynics and Devin Townsends of this world—Obscura has emerged from a snaking and deeply-arranged past into a nature barbed with Björriffed hooks and piercing, melodic peaks. Of course, a path, however traveled it may be, can always reveal a new wrinkle in weathered hands.

A Sonication functions as a step further into the synthesis of melodeath’s formative sounds with the steadfast Obscura amalgam. Kummerer has framed Obscura throughout each iteration as an exploration of his love for death metal, leaning on the percussiveness of Cynic-indebted guitar lines for rhythmic propulsion or the heft of a Morbid Angel syncopated, violent groove to shatter the typically bright, techy flow.² And as the earlier, longer-form progressive leanings swelled and passed, Obscura extracted from punchier sources a scrappier stance and lower-sweep attitude. That’s not to say that neither Kummerer nor new hire Kevin Olasz (Crone, God Enslavement) ignore their virtuosity entirely, letting vibrant and buttery leads and solos guide the path of spacious riffs on several occasions. But A Sonication’s compositions sway through scales with a tight tether to the growing sadness in Kummerer’s shrieky and modulated cries.

A Sonication by Obscura

Seven albums in, Obscura doesn’t aim to surprise so much as they aim to wear their strengths well. Through thundering tom booms and frayed guitar cuts that veteran producer Fredrik Nordström helps boost and divide for bubbling bass delicacies, A Sonication achieves a scratchy yet clear sonic identity that grants it a defined stance amongst its preceding incarnations. Raging opener “Silver Linings” and spiritual follow-up “In Solitude” capture the same At the Gates on bass-loaded poppers melotech swirl that helped 2021’s A Valediction find a power-swagger in resuscitated Gothenburg licks. And in a syncopated heroic riff pattern that recurs that peppers itself from open to close—a pattern that too litters the Obscura discog, from “Noospheres” (Cosmogenesis, 2009) to “Akróasis” (Akróasis, 2015) to “Emergent Evolution” (Diluvium, 2018)—A Sonication finds a familiar and invigorating harmonic grounding for the pummeling rhythms and throat-mangling rasps that surround.

However, A Sonication loses steam at the hands of piecework pacing amongst its self-referential hooks. Obscura has chosen this release to be their shortest to date, often a signal for experience-dialed intrigue and charm. But in paradox, cuts like “Evenfall” kill the early ripping mood with a sadboi-coded, anthemic lurch, despite Obscura still trying to navigate up front with quick-sticking riffs. Easy enjoyment finds a further sputter both in bursts of speed that feel like part of a different album (“The Prolonging”) and a reprisal instrumental track (“Beyond the Seventh Sun”), the latter of which, in its high-tech nature, has been an Obscura staple (“Orbital Elements” of Cosmogenesis and “Orbital Elements II” of A Valediction being the direct pedigree). Both that whiplash Necrophagist intensity followed by an in-the-lines obligation fill space in a way that doesn’t service the dark, harmony-seeking themes of the album—detours for the sake of fulfilling traditional aggression and wankery. In contrast, “Stardust” unpacking the finishing trio, no matter how many times we’ve heard a variation on that main riff,³ delivers on the melodic melancholy that gives A Sonication its grayscale character.

As the enmelodeathification of Obscura continues through A Sonication, Kummerer has found a comfort in a focused and polished expression that pleases with little effort, even if it lacks novel and awe-inspiring moments. In that same way, Obscura’s trajectory mirrors the patterns of crystallization that have occurred in the melosphere at large, with a streamlining of attack that errs close to a sanding of its unique aspects. Obscura retains a core of digestible and attachable showmanship carried by death-loving riffage, which makes its missteps quizzical in its supposed three-year construction. But A Sonication succeeds enough anyway—not with the blossoming strength of wisdom but with a persistence too practiced to craft a bad product.

Rating: Good.
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: V0 mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Websites: realmofobscura.com | obscura.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: February 7th, 2025

The post Obscura – A Sonication Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.