People often tend to put a negative stereotype on Death Metal bands in modern British society. Not me though. I don’t judge bands until I have listened to their music and in the case of OBSCURE; I was already won over just by the album cover and album title Darkness Must Prevail. For a title and album cover like the one on this album you know they are not going to be doing a softy power ballad in the style of a 1980’s glam metal band.
OBSCURE open up this album with a truly brilliant song called Curse Of My Race and I know people have often said you should always review with an open mind. However, with an album cover like the one they have for this record and song titles that are intriguing to the ear like Darkness Must Prevail, Into Utter Darkness and End Destination; they had already won me over.
I am a person who not only judges the song strength but also the production quality and musicianship. The songs themselves are in fact superb; not just for the quality of the songs themselves but also for musical skill that this band has. They have earned big thumbs up from me on that front. You can hear every single drum clearly; the thumping bass guitar can be heard and you can hear the thundering guitar riffs and screaming guitar solos
Great examples of these can be found on tracks Through Self -Repulsion, End Destination, Into Utter Darkness, Darkness Must Prevail and Blessing Of Malignancy. In fact, all of the songs on this truly magnificent album have superb audio quality both through my speaker system and headphones.
One of the great things about this album us that its like a book; you start from the beginning and you finish at the end. You never want to skip a track and that is because all the songs are fantastic to listen to, which to be honest is rare. I say this because even though there are some albums out there with truly great songs on them; but there are some songs on those albums that are not as strong as the truly great ones.
In the case of OBSCURE however that is not the case. There is not a song on this album that I want to skip. When you start from Curse Of My Race you want to listen right through every single song right to the end with Blessing Of Malignancy (by the way, that is a killer song to end with).
In essence all the songs on Darkness Must Prevail represent what Death Metal is about; they tell a story of darkness and oblivion. OBSCURE are essentially doing what all Heavy Metal music has done since its birth. They are the music equivalent of horror films and that is exactly what OBSCURE have done with this album. They are telling truly terrific stories through songs and they are mystical and sinister. If you are a horror fan you will love this band.
In conclusion I give OBSCURE a big fat 10 out of 10 rating. Simply because even though they have been around since the late 80’s and have finally been given the chance to make an album. They have made a debut album that has superb sound quality, something which a lot of debut albums from other bands from previous years lack. They also have character, soul and passion in their music and you can hear those things when you listen to the album. Each and every single song is full of energy and none of them are boring to listen to and if they play in the UK, I will happily pay for a ticket to see them live.
Rating: 10/10
Words: Alex Blaza
Darkness Must Prevail will be unleashed via Xtreem Music on 5th November 2019.
Find OBSCURE on Facebook and their official website.
