Album Review: Obscura Qalma – Apotheosis (Rising Nemesis Records)

Active since 2018, Venice, Italy natives Obscura Qalma will release their debut album, Apotheosis on November 12th via Rising Nemesis Records.

Obscura Qalma says:

Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, as well as by contemporary figures such as Massimo Recalcati and James Owen Weatherall, Apotheosis (from the Greek meaning, “To Deify”) explores human existence in an epistemological solipsistic view. Elevated to divine status, from a higher point we can look at the external world as an unresolvable question rather than actually false.

Musically, the album is inspired by Dissection, Emperor and Death as well as by classical music and film composers such as Alexandre Desplat.

Combining destructive blackened death metal with overtly elaborate and grandiose orchestration, Obscura Qalma are a dark entity and Apotheosis is their sermon. One to captivate a willing world, looking to block out the light and revel in the gloom of the end times. The soundtrack is here and it’s horror-laden and savage but also oddly glorious and beautiful. Such is the smooth and effective combination of such contrasting elements.

Though they’re far from the first band to combine symphonic lavishness and brutal heaviness, Obscura Qalma are offering their own take on it. One that corrupts the mind, body and soul through the sheer unbending power of their evil sound. Which is something that it really encapsulates – the sound of evil.

Revel in it, Obscura Qalma sure are as they blast their way through 10 tracks of blackened death metal. Layering almost every step with sharp but unobtrusive orchestration. Importantly, the latter is used carefully and never over-shadows what Obscura Qalma want you to focus predominantly on, which is the metal. It’s impossible to not focus on this level of brutality though and overall, the symphonic touches just enhance and add some fascinating flair.

Riffs this serrated, percussion this crunchy sounding, vocals this twisted; there is nothing your mind can do but wallow in it.

There may not be a unique flavour to Apotheosis but that’s fine when the band in question, Obscura Qalma, are doing such a standout job of modernising a familiar sound. This is orchestrated evil and chaos, and Obscura Qalma are the conductors.

Obscura Qalma – Apotheosis Full Track Listing:

1. Demise Of Sun
2. Impure Black Enlightenment
3. Gemini
4. The Forbidden Pantheon
5. Transcending the Sefirot
6. Paradise Lost
7. Fleshbound
8. Telemachus Complex
9. Imperial Cult
10. Awaken A Shrine to Oblivion

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