 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| An excellent debut effort,
three tracks of pure, intense hatred . Black metal? Swedish death?
Perhaps, yet anything but melodic. Blistering speed and viloent riffs
on the first two tracks, while the somewhat more mid-tempo track 3
really stands apart for it's grim, seething atmosphere... Tracks 1
and 2 are somewhat reminiscent of Dissection, The Crown, etc...but
much more raw and primitive sounding.
Bone crunching! Vocals are stark raving lunacy! From piercing screethes to low, death growls, Johan Huldtgren shows amazing range & depth. Coupled with the masterful guitar work of Anders Ahlblack, the finest points of this rare, limited edition. Bleak cover art featuring firing squad poses and various scenes of death clearly echo the band's sentiments supporting"total annihilation of the human race", which is more than prevelant in the music within. War Metal at it's finest! This mcd reminds me that, when done in
the appropriate setting, with care, the use of programming in black/death
metal definitely has a place, despite purist views...truly, on this
release, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference, the guitar
and vocals making the incredibly strong statement that is Obitus.
One looks forward to great things in future from this excellent
product of Sweden. Review by:Lorjef This is not my type of thing, but to my suprise, after a few listens, it grew on me. This is, as i've been led to understand, a mixture of black and death metal, although it seems to lean slightly more on the black metal side to me. Whatever ideas and fusions took place to make this, it's resulted in a pretty lethal three song M-CD. Although this isn't the most terribly original release out there (even I can tell), it's all very well handled. The sound is great, and the music blasts all the way and is pretty powerful. Even the drums are programmed, they sound very natural and believable, which is suprising as most bands seem to get carried away with the ultra-fast possibilities the drum machine opens up to them and end up sounding plain and mechanical. Here though, it sounds just right. Anyway, besides the drums, the guitars have a thin and ripping sound, giving the feel a raw feel to it. The vocals are screamed and growled out hatefully, singing about what seems to be the destruction of the entire human race. A bit cliche, but it works. I liked this, even though i'm not a fan of the genre, this is, for what it is, a good release, worth checking out. Review by: DeathGrind Webzine This is how i remember liking swedish metal - melodic and pissed off. solid double picked rhythms all the way throughout, creative drum programming and Johan's vocals are fucking fierce. i started writing this yesterday and postponed it to give more details but i'll do that later. first song is quite catchy, 2nd i thought was good but a bit weaker, 3rd is awesome, the main, slow riff is totally excellent. highly worth the meager $5. Review by: Abbas Jaffery I have to say that one of the best features is the artwork and layout of this piece, when i opened the envelope and took out the cd i was just like "wow" when i saw the cover, it looks fuckin awesome and as you say gives an idea of the feel of it all, and represents greatly what this music is all about. the only complaints i have here is the sound of the drums at some parts and the fact this band hasnt been signed yet to bring us more of this great music... Review by: Herr Chemosh A three track mCDr (is that a category yet?) by two war mongering Swedes, one of which is a confirmed evil genious by all accounts. This is war metal played in a hectic, avalanching way, with extreme violence as it's lustful goal. Johan's vocal approach is quite suitable match for this type of shit, full of rage, rasp and roar. I also like his drum programming, which stays at full-throttle balisticum throughout, relying on variance in fills, bridges, and well placed rolls. Amid those elements, the guitar fills in the balance of the sound with a persistant, stinging grind. For a demo release, the sound quality of the recording is better than average, approaching results some labels lay out a heavy buck for. Think Niden Div. 187 territory. Review by: Ma-kahru
Obitus hail from Sweden and I guess they can be categorized as "anti-human Black Metal" since the booklet states that they support the total annihilation of the human race. Ok on to the music. This is overall very fast-paced without many slowdowns, brutal stuff and the music is quite raw. Despite the speed and brutality, there's still some melodic parts (Ok they're fast but still melodic) which make this more than just your typical hellfest. The third song "A Day Of Gloom" has been stuck in my head ever since I got this CD. I'd say it is arguably the most "mature" of the three songs here in terms of songwriting. It has more variety and tempo changes than the other two and overall just sounds like more work was put into it. The first two songs are pretty much played "pedal to the metal" and are a bit more uniform (read: less variety) than the third one. I'm not saying they're bad - quite the contrary - but my preference tends toward "A Day Of Gloom" as a favorite here. The vocals are quite fitting to the music as well, varying from "screechy" to deep growls. There are a few spoken parts that are extremely well done, having kind of a "haunting" sound to them that add to the evil atmosphere and sound of this recording. Good stuff. Of course I wouldn't mind if the CD was not this short, 11 minutes go by pretty quickly. I think this should please pretty much any fan of brutal Black Metal. Don't expect any kind of commercial crap sound here, so if you're one of those who think Cradle and Dimmu are the best things out there, you'll go cry to your mom upon hearing this. Review by: Michel
Renaud
With a cover like this and a title like "Coup de Grâce" and a brief look at the inside (pictures and motto of the band) you might think that this band is similar to something like Nailbomb; you could not be more wrong I guess! 'Endless Dark Tormentors' blasts out of my speakers with the intensity of the Swedish giants Marduk and Dark Funeral; though there are some other bands that might give you an idea of what to expect. Vocalist Johan Huldtgren barks out his lyrics in possessed screams, which do remind me of Varg Vikerness's (Burzum) way of singing at times. And another band which must be mentioned is Limbonic Art; not only because this band consists of two men and a drumming machine. So if you mix these four names into one and add a more underground sound to it, you will have a good idea of what to expect. The typical Swedish element is laid in the fact that the band plays ferocious, yet without the typical cold grimness of the Norwegian underground bands; there is still some melody in it (perhaps a heritage of Abba, haha). The band does not have that much of an own identity yet, but if you take into account that these songs were recorded already in August 2000 I am curious about their current capabilities, as there are most certainly some promising aspects in the music of these two misanthropists. Meanwhile I have received the "Gather Against Humanity" split CD, on which the band is also present, so be prepared for more soon! Review by: www.vampire-magazine.com |