OBSCURA

One of my friends (who's into more heavy music) once recommended me this album, I warned him that I was probably not going to like it because he told me it had growls in every single track. The first time I listened Obscura I thought it sounded terrible. It was an absolute mess of riffs with no melody and a pig screeching on top, yuck! However this chaos kinda caught my attention, because I really couldn't tell a single progressive rock band that made an album as chaotic yet technical as this one. The second listen, I started to pay more attention to the instrumentation and get used to the growls (but I still didn't like them), and I definitely began to appreciate this album.

The thing is that I really don't like growls, and I think that if there was some sort of singer delivering actual notes, I would enjoy this more. But the instrumentation behind this has to be some of the most complex metal ever made. Every track is an undecypherable ocean of time signatures and riffs that I simply cannot comprehend, and it's even harder to understand when you have someone growling on top.

With all the songs being very similar, I can't say there's a specific stand out in this album (although Nostalgia could be a candidate for that spot), and even though I really don't enjoy extreme metal... To each with their own! This album is truly a monster within its genre, and the instrumentation is some of the greatest I've heard, it's more than enough to redeem the awful and disgusting vocals that plague the album. I'm pretty sure death metal fans will enjoy this more than I do! A bold record, but one that works amazingly, I'm giving it five stars, even though I don't listen it that much.