OBSTRUKTION – THE END TAKES FORM

(Andy Synn investigates what form the new album from Sweden’s Obstruktion will take)

As has already been pretty well documented (if you’ve been paying attention, at least) I’m not a huge Thrash guy these days.

Don’t get me wrong, I acknowledge the seminal importance of the style – it does, after all, form the foundation of so much of what we listen to – and still have a lot of love for the classics (and will always have time for Kreator).

But, these days at least, it’s only when it gets mixed up in other styles – Death Thrash, Blackened Thrash, and especially the thrashier side of Hardcore – that it really gets my proverbial motor running.

And the new album from Obstruktion, which smashes a bunch of hefty Death and Thrash influences into the group’s central Hardcore sound, definitely ticks all the right boxes for me.

As much inspired by the likes of Exodus and Entombed as by Hardcore heavy-hitters like Ringworm and Merauder, The End Takes Form is a nine-round beatdown that comes out of the gates swinging with the riff-loaded, chug-happy auditory assault of its title-track and the relentless “Death Comes Near” (whose climactic, bass-heavy breakdown is a real gut-punch in its own right), and then doubles down with back-to-back bruisers “The Final Hour” (a personal favourite of mine) and the increasingly Death Metal inspired “Sow Fear”.

And while the band obviously shine brightest – and, arguably, hit hardest – during short, sharp bursts of pummelling aggression like the aforementioned “Death Comes Near” and the absolutely pulverising “Machinery of Delusion” (one of the most high-impact slabs of Metallic Hardcore you’re likely to hear all year), there’s also something to be said for their occasional willingness to stretch things out in order to deliver a more methodical musical beating (as they do with “Grotesque Order”).

Nowhere is this more evident than during the album’s absolutely humongous, unapologetically ominous, closing track “Born of Contempt”, which showcases an altogether darker, moodier, and borderline doomier, side of their identity, introducing a dash of sinister melody (including a searing solo segment) and an added emphasis on stomping, slow-motion menace that contrasts perfectly with the more overtly aggressive and in-your-face approach of the rest of the record.

Trust me, there’s a lot of good Death/Thrash/Hardcore crossover bands out there right now – think Doomsday, Lifesick, Fuming Mouth, etc – and, on the strength of The End Takes Form, Obstruktion absolutely deserve to be mentioned right up alongside the very best of them.