Obscura - Akróasis

Published January 30 2016

*=Staff's pick	Sermons Of The Seven Suns* The Monist Akróasis* Ten Sepiroth Ode To The Sun* Fractal Dimension Perpetual Infinity Weltseele

Genre	Progressive Death Metal	Steffen Kummerer	Vocals
Tracks	8	Steffen Kummerer	Guitar
Running time	54 Min.	Tom Geldschläger	Guitar
Label	Relapse Records	Linus Klausenitzer	Bass
Release	February 05, 2016	Sebastian Lanser	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboard
Producer	V. Santura
Similar artists	late-era Death, Cynic

Just to get this perfectly straight from the very start, death metal of the more progressive kind tends to leave me particularly uninterested. I prefer my death metal meaty and rancid, thick and suffocating. Still, given the hype surrounding the Germans in Obscura I felt they deserved some of my attention with their 4th full-length 'Akróasis'.

The closest reference point that comes to mind when listening to 'Akróasis' is Death's ground breaking 'Symbolic' effort. Particularly regarding the clean, airy and, well, neat production. The production voids the music of much of the brutality, but on the other hand gives this über-technical jazz-influenced progressive death metal the necessary breathing space to allow all aspects of the music to reach the listener without giving it too much undivided focus.

Particularly the bass has been given enough room in the mix to reveal an interesting journey of its own. As is common in this sub-genre, listening to any sole instrument gives an almost completely different album then the instruments combined, but the bass in particular catches my attention.

Contrary to my prejudice 'Akróasis' is not all technicality and no structure. In fact, Obscura combines technical extravaganza with melodic songwriting, produces songs that would appeal to a broader range of people. I guess this is one aspect that has given rise to the hype.

To aid the formation of proper songs, Kummerer's combined standard growling and vocorder clean vocals serves as a bridge to effectively combine the more brutal technical parts of the album with the melodic straightforward ones. This album does still require some effort from the listener though and 54 minutes' worth of this music is a bit too much. One my part I would have done perfectly fine without the closing 15 minute mastodon 'Weltseele'.

To reflect back on my initial statement I have to give Obscura the best of credits for producing an album filled with far-out technical numbers wrapped in a surgically precise production that still manage to appeal to me. Even though it won't make album of the year in my book it has enough elements to make it worth another spin or two in the future. For die-hard fans of progressive death metal though I guess this one is mandatory.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	7	7	6	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tengan