Obscura
is the third album by Gorguts. It is seen as one of the most technical and complex albums within the death metal genre, consisting of many experimental and dissonant melodies, and strange rhythms.
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OBSCURA TICKETS
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History
Following the release of their second full-length
The Erosion of Sanity
, the band did an European tour in 1993.
[1] However, when Gorguts returned, coincided with the decline of
death metal's popularity, and they were subsequently dropped from the
Roadrunner roster.
[2] Then, they "started writing material for
Obscura
."
Critical reception
Obscura
was defined by reviewers, as "
complex" and "
dissonant".
[3] [4] The album received praise for its production, with the reviewer of the webzine
Chronicles of Chaos, saying that
Obscura
"has the power to take its listeners to other worlds of astounding beauty, dark mystery and intense complexity."
With a less broad vision and regarding only the production itself, a writer of the Dark Legions Archive stated:
[5]
Powerful mixing technique went into this release to preserve the clarity of individual instruments despite their simultaneously divergent tonal and rhythmic properties, preserving both sound and timbre to a high degree.
Peter Pardo of Sea of Tranquility found similarities with
Cryptopsy, and to a lesser extent
The Dillinger Escape Plan on
Calculating Infinity
; complemented by 'Sound Delirium' reviewer Killa Bee:
[6] [7]
Take death metal riffs, but make them schizophrenic beyond any music that is psychotic and does not fall completely into the spaces that some might call "noise", "free", "improvisations", or just "cacophonous".
Pardo—along with William York of
Allmusic—compared
Obscura
with the
free-form jazz of
Captain Beefheart, stating that the album "takes all conventional ideas of what
extreme metal should sound like and throws them out the window."
[8] York categorized
Obscura
, as "one of the most challenging, difficult albums ever released within the metal genre."
Others reviewers concluded that
Obscura
is "very difficult to make comparisons", and even those who did, reached the same conclusion.
In terms of its towering complexity and unprecedented strangeness, Obscura
has a lot more in common with Captain Beefheart's avant-rock monstrosity Trout Mask Replica
than it does the latest Cannibal Corpse release.
Track listing
All lyrics written by Luc Lemay, Steeve Hurdle.
Personnel
- Gorguts – producer
- * Luc Lemay – guitar, vocals, viola, artwork
- * Steeve Hurdle – guitar, vocals
- * Steve Cloutier – bass
- * Patrick Robert – drums
- Pierre Rémillard – producer, engineer
- Sylvain Brisebois – master
- Joe Beaupré – photography
- Alain Cloutier – artwork
References
- Interview with Gorguts and Withered Earth
- Gorguts > Biography
- Obscura review
- Obscura review
- Gorguts
- Obscura review
- Obscura review
- Obscura > Review