Album Review: Obsidious – Iconic (Season of Mist)

Modern metal band Obsidious, features Linus Klausenitzer (bass), Rafael Trujillo (guitars), Sebastian Lanser (drums), and vocalist Javi Perera (vocals) from distinguished and lettered origins in Obscura, Alkaloid, Eternity’s End, and Juggernaut. The group will release their new album, Iconic, on October 28th, 2022 via Season of Mist.

It’s a flurry of technical guitars and beastly drums to get Iconic off and rolling. Obsidious setting the bar for electrifying proficiency high with Under Black Skies. A track that develops into unexpected and epic realms, thanks to the two vocals styles and their inability to hold one thread for too long. It’s wild, it’s intense and it’s a stunner of a start.

It is just that though. The start, and with crashing instruments tinged with blackness, Sense of Lust shows that there’s a whole lot more to enjoy on this album. A track that is darkly twisted and exceptionally meaty. Whereas the title track is unbridled tech-metal pandemonium and Bound by Fire is a maddening blend of speed, fury and eccentricities. Don’t presume for one second that you have a handle on Obsidious, as they always have a new trick or ten up their sleeve.

Case in point, the middle pairing of Iron & Dust and I Am. Two of the album’s lengthier trawls and two tracks that feature an array of ideas. Be in technical sharpness that sears through the brain, wandering melodies and erratic atmosphere, or devastating heaviness that sounds fresher than anything heard before this. Absurdly cool sounding music.

The excitement for more from Obsidious is at an all time high so the epic orchestration and choir that introduces Delusion is fascinating. That it then gives way to a stupendous level of wild and wacked out instrumentation is even more impressive. One of the most uncivilised showcases of guitar on the album. Yet, it’s got such a fantastical tone and switches direction in astonishing ways.

It’s a tall task to follow that, yet with as much heart and soul as shown already, rhythmic chops and a bludgeoning approach to heaviness, Obsidious manage it. The thrill-ride that is Devotion, the bass brilliance of Nowhere (seriously, it will make you laugh out loud with joy) and the head-banging explosivity of Lake of Afterlife, a finale with a ton of atmosphere and featuring a ripping guitar solo.

What an album this is! Talk about taking the ‘tech’ part of metal and giving it a fresh coat of paint. Obsidious are genre-bending here and the end result is beyond lovable.

Obsidious – Iconic Full Track Listing:

1. Under Black Skies
2. Sense of Lust
3. Iconic
4. Bound by Fire
5. Iron & Dust
6. I Am
7. Delusion
8. Devotion
9. Nowhere
10. Lake of Afterlife

Links

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Youtube