Album Details

• Artist: Obsydian
• Album: The Grotesque Presage
• Label: Indie
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2011-02-16

Nova Scotia metal band Obsydian sure do attract the sharks for a relatively new band barely out of their teens. Read most reviews of their music and sooner or later "derivative" comes up, or "cookie cutter extreme metal," things like that. But here you won't find me saying that, and for three reasons:

1) they are young, so of course their sound will be influenced by their heroes; 2) it is kind of hard to be original in metal, or crust, to hardcore, for the simple fact that the basic form is already set in stone; what makes each good band different is passion and heart; and 3) one listen to "The Grotesque Presage" will show that the band not only has plenty of heart, but their riffs are as punishing and funky as you're likely to hear from Black Cobra, Electric Wizard, or any of your own heroes.

Effortlessly, seriously hard and groove-solid riffs define "Blastocyst Assassination" as a brutal metal classic. "The Rebirth," "Poison of the Pious" and "Seeds of Desecration" are also killer. As you can tell from the titles, the lyrics are not exactly original, and maybe a little bit lazy, given the sweat and blood they have obviously put into the music. But volume and power chords have saving grace, as Townshend/Iggy/Jimmy/Tony/ you have proven, so who cares about the words?

"The Grotesque Presage" is a debut record to remember. Obsydian already create legit power and grit, lead by guitarists Marc MacKenzie and Mitch Dragatis. They can only go up up up from here.

User Reviews and Comments