Cosmogenesis

Obscura | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: February 17, 2009
• Label: Relapse Records
• Copyright: 2009 Relapse Records Inc.
• Total Length: 50:07
• Genres: Hard Rock & Metal/Death Metal
• ASIN: B001QSIOPI
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,337 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense & dynamic....outstanding!, March 21, 2009

By 

James M. Pearson (College Place, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cosmogenesis (Audio CD)

This is definitely one of the best new releases I've come across in a good, long time. Obscura seemlessly melds technical death metal with more of a progressive element on this incredible album. There are a lot of harmonized guitar lines, blast beats, and death growls, but there also slower tempo moments that display a wider range of musicality and dynamism. There are some clean vocals, too, but they are definitely not operatic like Hammerfall or Blind Guardian. I think, actually, the vocalist is probably not the best singer, so the clean interludes don't offer anything mind-blowing in a melodic sense. Nonetheless, the clean vocals fit nicely into the mix.

By the far the most impressive element of this band and this album is the bassist. All too often the bass is but an afterthought in extreme music, melding inconspicuously into the background. Obscura, however, bring the bass right back to the main stage, a la Iron Maiden and Sadus. The bassist plays a 6-string fretless bass, and it is definitely an integral piece of Obscura's sound. The bass lines, fills, and (yes!) solos add so much to their music, and I think set them apart from a lot of mediocre bands.

This album is a must-listen for anyone who appreciates technical death metal, particurly the European bands, like Necrophagist and Pestilence. But I would also challenge those of you just discovering heavier music to check it out, too. Fans of God Forbid, Lamb of God, In Flames, Arch Enemy, and the like should be able to find something you'll like here.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is what I'm talking about!, March 18, 2010

By 

Eric H "Not a big fan..." (Chicagoland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmogenesis (Audio CD)

If you were to chart the prevalence and quality of Heavy Metal I assume it would resemble the stock market's own charting of the Dow Industrial average. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, it seemed to shoot for the stars in a seemingly-unending upward spiral. But then the bubble burst like the anus of someone forcing back a laxative, and the metal went away, to be replaced by it's retarded cousin once removed: grunge. Later on would see the rise of the even more retarded "Nu Metal" and "Rap Metal". Then along came metalcore and the Heavy Metal coffin seemed to have it's final nail nailed into the proper nail slot.

But then!: Metal seemed to return from it's vacation, albeit with some crucial elements missing like some sort of vietnam vet returning home with no lower portions. Yes, far be it for me to criticize the quality of metal today, but it just sucks, plain and simple. Whereas the eighties was bathing in a sea of Slayer, Testament, Iron Maiden, and so many names I could fill the 10,000 character limit, today metal is filled with the horrendous stylings of craptacular outfits like Job For a Cowboy, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Killswitch Engage. Continuing our analogy of metal to the stock market, there is an obvious and undeniable crisis in the quality of Metal in our current time.

But Then!: Along comes a band by the name of Obscura. A moniker derived from the unusual-yet-likable album Obscura by a band known as Gorguts (guess what they like on their pizza). Hailing from the same place as Kreator, Destruction, and a million other german metal bands: Germany! Obscura blends the progressiveness of, say Death's Symbolic with the ferocity of,...I'm gonna go with Morbid Angel's Blessed are the Sick, and it rises above the horrible, smelly masses and lifts both middle fingers in a show of, "F*** you! We have talent." That totally made-up quote conveniently leads me to my next point: Obscura actually has a bassist!

You see, some metal bands and nearly all metalcore bands do not have a bassist. Sure, they might have some flat-rimmed-hat wearing doofus pounding out obscenely-detuned root notes, but they do not have a true bassist, in the more real sense of the word. Obscura, on the other hand, has the six-string fretless virtuosity of Jeroen Paul Thesseling, a musician professionally trained to hit every microtone to make your head bang and your skin crawl. He is one of those very few - in league with Cliff Burton, Roger Patterson, and Steve DiGorgio - a metal bassist with talent!

But this album has everything I could ask for in a metal album: fast, aggressive, complex riffs combined with amazingly shreddy, yet melodic leads, eerily shrieky and guttural vocals, audible and complex basslines that give the very idea of mere root notes the finger, and an instrumental that WILL raise the hair on the back of your back, or wherever you have hair.

This is an album you cannot listen to only once. to give it proper justice, you must give it another go to really discover all it has to offer. And every time you do, you will hear a bassline you missed or a riff you hadn't heard yet. And this album will amaze you, time and time again - until the Earth is left as a burned piece of rock and the sun has shrunk to the size of the moon, leaving the solar system in total darkness only broken by the distant waivering of the cosmos' flickering stars own destruction - or you die, whichever comes first.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An instant classic! FLAWLESS!!!, March 18, 2009

By 

Brett (North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cosmogenesis (MP3 Download)

This is one of the best death metal albums I've ever heard. They have the sickest rhythm section ever! The drummer is just mad-crazy on this album, and the bass player actually STANDS out, which most other bands' bassists usually fail to do. Plus he's playing a 6-string FRETLESS. I'm pretty sure he spent lots of time arranging his parts in this album (of course the same applies to all other members as well, haha). And the guitar work, pure beauty, if that can be used to describe a death metal album. Where lots of bands fail to be melodic AND brutal, Obscura shows them how it's done. They are one of those few bands that never get too repetitive nor boring, but are totally the complete opposite. Their melodies just make you crave more and more, so hitting the pause or stop button is a very difficult task when listening. I rarely find a death metal album like that anymore... One thing on this album that's a little different (in a good way of course) is in "Universe Momentum," at about 1:04 into the song there an acoustic passage with some dark, atmospheric classical elements. I love it when bands put in the most unexpected twists such as this. It gives the song a new perspective and totally fits.

As for highlights, I don't have any. The whole album all the way through is solid, I could play the whole thing through twice without getting tired of it. If you're into Necrophagist but can't take their sudden changes in structure into these weird jazzy passages (which I personally like, but to each their own), Obscura may be more up your alley. As a matter of fact, I read somewhere that the drummer and one of the guitarists played in Necrophagist for a while, so that may explain their sound a bit. Also, when I listen I can also hear hints of bands like Demons and Wizards (intro to "Orbital Elements") (yeah, an odd comparison, I know), Arch Enemy(?), and as someone mentioned in an earlier review, Death (most notably in "Incarnated," the verse reminds me of "Misanthrope").

I definitely recommend this to anyone who a fan of the mentioned bands above, or for someone looking for something new to hear. This is an essential for every metal collection... Not just "death" metal, but METAL collections. So what are you waiting for?! Buy it!!!