It’s finally here! German tech death masters Obscura recently announced a new album with a teaser, and now they’ve come out with a new single, which happens to be the title track of the upcoming album Akroasis. And, well, it’s interesting to say the least. Let’s check it out.
Well, this is a bit of a change in direction in Obscura, perhaps inspired by atmospheric tech death like Fallujah and WRVTH. Instead of focusing on guitar counterpoint like they used to, this song instead has a singular guitar track played in the trademark Obscura style, whereas the other guitar goes between playing clean ambient chords and solos. The production is also a bit weird, as the guitars and drums are too silent whereas the bass and vocals overpower them – loud bass is an Obscura tradition but it takes away from the song when it’s too loud! At least the bass writing being very cool makes up for it. The production in the teaser was better, so it’s either this specific song being especially atmoshperic, or just pre-production. Overall, it’s still an interesting and enjoyable song, and the other songs on the teaser sounded more “classic Obscura”, but this is definitely an interesting one. It’s still good, but it will take some time getting used to. Also worth noting is that the lead work is really cool, and the riffing in general is neat. It doesn’t seem like the band has lost any steam from losing the best guitarist and drummer in the genre, so there’s also that.
-NT