Obscure Burial – Obscure Burial (Invictus Productions. 2017).
Possessing a morbidity and old-school foetid feeling, Obscure Burial have finally unleashed their debut album, a macabre journey through realms obscure. The first song, Lucilia Silvarum, provides a great start for the album. After the sample introduction, it builds into a mid-paced journey through darkened realms with brief flourishes of faster fury before descending back into the sinister depths. It builds up a malevolent atmosphere as it crawls through the bowels of Hell, and the faster, brief Necrovore influenced riffs around the two-minute mark are a pointer as to the musical heritage that Obscure Burial draws from. You can practically smell the candles and incense whilst listening to the song, as it evokes imagery of obscure rituals cloaked in Stygian blackness. The use of solos in the songs helps masterfully accentuate some of the madness and the mysterious evil of the songs, particularly Imago Mortis, which sounds like a hymn to obscure forces of darkness. Of the eight songs on the album, four are originally from the demos, with Darkness Spawns, I Spoke To Darkness (Black Deserts Divine), and Necrophagous Ritual from the 2012 God’s Abomination, and Dweller In The Abyss from the 2014 Epiphany demo. The newer material fits perfectly in with the earlier material, and it flows well, with that ancient feeling permeating the album. The drumming is done perfectly, never overpowering the guitars or harming the atmosphere, instead being used perfectly to help conjure the Hellish vistas that the music evokes. With the production, the guitars are nice and loud, and sound truly evil, whilst the bass could be a tad louder in the mix. Personally, the drums are done well in the mix and it fits the music well. There is a part of me which wonders whether the music might be better served by production that is rawer and rougher like that found on the demos, but this is a minor issue and doesn’t detract from the morbid glory of Obscure Burial and their killer debut. This is a fiendish tribute to the ancient gods of Death Metal. From start to finish, it is a ride through the depths of the Abyss, with a suffocating atmosphere of evil and malice that will exhilarate those devoted to old-school Death Metal. This is a fitting tribute to the gods of Necrovore and Morbid Angel.
8.5/10.
SADISTIC SCREAMS 