OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XX: CHANGES, TEMPERATURES, AND RIFFS

(Daniel Barkasi returns with his monthly collection of album reviews, this time recommending six albums released in August 2025.)

As summer nears its conclusion, the heat has finally (sort of) calmed down a little in the Floridian swamp. It’s about damn time. The dogs can finally be taken outside and we’re not a dripping puddle of sweat in 1.2 seconds. More like 10 minutes, which is an improvement that’s most welcome!

On a sad personal note, my wife and I lost our precious dog Kaiya last week. It wasn’t completely unexpected – she had just turned 17 and had some worsening health issues – and her body just couldn’t keep going. We had a hell of a 17th birthday bash only a few days prior, but she sadly plummeted quickly not long after.

My wife had her for literally half of my wife’s life, and I had the distinct pleasure of having her in my life for over a decade. She was the best girl – sweet as can be, loving, gentle, and quirky in the best ways. It’s still hard for me to write this, as I miss her terribly and it’ll be fresh for a while. One of our other dogs, Hiroki, has taken it especially hard, as they were incredibly close. He seems to be on the mend, thankfully, as he sits next to me.

We love you, Kaiya, and thank you for being such an important part of our family. You’ll always be with us. All the love to anyone else who has lost a pet recently, or ever, as they’re integral parts of your life and it’s hard to lose such an integral member of the family.

Some good news, however! We’re officially heading out of Florida. We’re moving back up north, a lot closer to a lot of family/friends, and we’re excited. I’ll miss the theme parks desperately, though, but this is a move that we need. That said, I’ve been spending most of my waking minutes packing, and will be for the foreseeable future. But, don’t fret, as I’ll carve out some time to talk about smatterings of albums. Lucky you – or not.

August was kind to our ears, keeping the summer momentum flowing with some truly great releases. A couple of favorites were covered finely at NCS – Islander taking on प्रलय (Pralaya), with Andy Synn covering Cult Burial and Trudger – all being especially excellent records that have been in regular rotation to these ears. Also, congrats on the upcoming nuptials, Andy!

Time to plow forward into my selections from the past month. Hopefully you find something that you’ll dig as much as I did, and if not, there’s always September, which is off to a scintillating start itself. Take care of yourselves, and be good to each other!

Centuries of Decay – A Monument to Oblivion

Release Date: August 1, 2025

We’re starting with a doozy that was the surprise of the month, and to be fair, it’s rounded out to be one of the best newcomers of the year thus far. Introducing Canada’s Centuries of Decay – a progressive death metal outfit who dropped their second album A Monument to Oblivion. Their self-titled debut showed major flashes of potential back in 2017, but what we’d get next far surpassed any reasonable expectation.

The genre of progressive death metal can kind of be a dirty word for this scribe, with many bands labeled as such ending up either eschewing heaviness or too proggy for their own good, or just plain uninteresting compositionally. A Monument to Oblivion succumbs to none of these pitfalls, deftly avoiding any misgivings almost entirely. The mammoth opener “Cauterize” is as smooth as it is abrasive, all packaged in slick and forward-thinking songwriting that always has the next movement plotted out in great detail. Every song goes somewhere enticing, and many times not what one would expect.

The guitar work from Devin Doucette and Rob McAllister is sublime – beefy and flowing with riffs, tight and memorable leads, all in a technically dazzling package that’s executed to pinpoint precision. Tracks such as “Between the Waves of Grief” dish out considerable punishment whilst aligning with melodic tidbits and watershed moments to keep proceedings interesting and bombastic all at once.

The title track walks a tricky balance between the emotive and the rippingly forceful, doing so in a multitude of fashions – one of which is providing a variety of vocal approaches. “The Great Divide” eerily dabbles in death/doom territory without losing the core of what Centuries of Decay are trying to portray, whereas “Wake” leans harder into the progressive side of the band cleverly, maintaining that elusive balance that keeps the band on the rails.

There’s so much going on with A Monument to Oblivion that it can be very easy to miss important details, so be sure to give this one at least a half dozen spins to properly evaluate it. That’s a time investment, as the album clocks in at just over an hour, but the fruits of your labor very likely will be rewarded. If you’re anything like me, you’ll get hooked early and spend days repeating this glorious album like a madman. Centuries of Decay breathes oxygen into a style that absolutely needs new blood, and if justice prevails, A Monument to Oblivion will become a genre staple – a landmark release from a band who are frighteningly just getting started.

 

Hedonist – Scapulimancy

Release Date: August 1, 2025

Egregiously heavy death metal that doesn’t fall into the “brutal” category will nearly always garner this ornery bastard’s attention. When attentively melded with a bunch of other influences that we savor – the crust/punk realm in this case – well, that’s too intriguing to not give our full attention. In that vein, Hedonist’s first full effort Scapulimancy is here to pummel with vehement delight, and we can’t absorb their wares quickly enough.

Present is plenty of the classic Bolt Thrower-ish sort of death metal soundscape, both foundationally and production-wise, but there’s also loads of crust rawness to diverge from their contemporaries. “Execution Wheel” comes bounding out of the gates like a tank barreling towards you at maximum velocity, boasting gargantuan rhythm guitars amongst a war metal sort of feel and punky angst. Quite the addicting combination, to be certain, and Hedonist firmly fixates your attention.

There’s a surprising amount of variety vocally, courtesy of vocalist/bassist AJ, who ranges from the deepest of growls to high-pitched screams, blackened bellows, and plenty other variations in between. “Heresy” is an excellent example, though this versatility is flexed throughout the album’s tight 36-minute run time. Cuts such as “Barbarian” and the title track both hit that muscular mid-paced stomp to a tee. “Parasitic Realm” shreds with a blackened aesthetic without sacrificing crucial low-end brutality, where the cutting lead work of “Cremator” and the full-on crunch of “Profanation” and “Hidden Corpse” – guitarists JP and AA make a devastating tandem – leave the listener reduced to a bloody imprint on what used to be their face. To boot, drummer CB produces some of the most thunderous death metal rhythms we’ve heard in a bit, rounding out Hedonist’s robust sound delightfully.

Simply put, Hedonist make death metal in a way that we’ll always devour like we’ve never eaten before – obnoxiously heavy and well-written, accompanied by enough swagger and variance to make it their own while embracing the best of what came before. Canada is really bringing it this month, and we implore you to give Scapulimancy the attention it demands.

 

Innumerable Forms – Pain Effulgence

Release Date: August 22, 2025

Existing in the realms of death/doom like innovators Winter and masters Hooded Menace, Boston’s Innumerable Forms have managed to carve out a space for themselves amongst these and other upper-echelon acts. Their 2022 sophomore effort Philosophical Collapse saw the band heavily embrace dissonant tones along with their cavernous atmospheres and cutting guitar manifestations, shooting the band up the proverbial ladder. The third full-length would be a test of mettle for the group, and the resulting Pain Effulgence does indeed take them further still.

If you dug the aforementioned previous record, no doubt you’ll find a copious amount of pleasure here – the tone is filthy, the instrumentation wailing and massive, and the overall feel is comfortably similar. The differences are a bit more subtle, but ultimately, this holds as an example of a band going a step farther with their sound without losing the key elements that make them tick. Pain Effulgence is a hair darker and more despondent than Philosophical Collapse, and it serves their output well.

Entries such as “Indignation” are vicious as ever, emanating a feeling of hopelessness with a smidgeon of instrumental flair in the leads. The band also go further towards pure death metal with “Blotted Inside” and “Ressentiment” to dial up the pace just enough to show off their gruff side. “Dissonant Drift” brings a murkier mood to the mix, and “Overwhelming Subjugation” represents their overarching doom stylings in a mercurial, colossal fashion.

Not to oversimplify, but Pain Effulgence gives us Innumerable Forms next evolution, adding slightly more mature compositions, a further overcast and bleak aura, and more moments that’ll stick inside one’s cranium. The upward trajectory continues, dialing into their strengths to continue on their intended path of dominance.

 

Hebephrenique – Decathexis

Release Date: August 23, 2025

Now entering into a blackened nightmare, our hosts Hebephrenique are all too eager to lure us into their sinister environment. The Australians released a killer EP in Non Compos Mentis in 2023, and since then we’ve been hoping to see a full album come down the road. Two years later, our wish has come to fruition by way of Decathexis.

Reminding somewhat of Defacement solely in attitude, who released a delectable nugget in Doomed this month, Hebephrenique exist in their own chaotic space outside of the norm. Whilst Defacement is more suffocating in nature, Hebephrenique traverses the more dissonant and horrifying path. “Visions of Magdalene” emits an uncomfortable, creeping feeling as the song slithers its way to attack one’s senses from every angle. “I, Adverse” continues this unsettling direction, with technical death metal moments accenting the twisted tonality oozing all over.

Vocalist Kris Wolf (also of the excellent Graveir) comes across as completely unhinged, with disturbing roars and groans within a wide differentiation of deliveries, taking the band’s unpredictable flavor to another stratosphere. The album continues with “Argumentum Ad Baculum” to provide further examples of audible madness with dizzying structures and wild vocal manipulations, all encompassed within Jack Greenhill’s frenetic guitars and songwriting, pushed to the limits by the jaw-dropping percussive efforts of Leo Graae. The title track closes proceedings, awash with synth work and pacing changes that amount to the most unpredictable track on offer, and uncoincidentally one of the most maniacal.

Prepare for insanity with Hebephrenique, but one can’t really brace for what this trio have in store. Decidedly different and all the better for it, Decathexis turns blackened death metal onto its head and drags it into a torment-filled, malignant hellscape that we’ll be glad to recur.

 

Blutsauger – Nocturnal Blood Tyrants

Release Date: August 29, 2025

The low-fi fuzziness of raw black metal rears its kvlt head in the form of Blutsauger (akin to blood sucker in German), who are one of the few modern acts that nails this sound like a crucifixion. As we’ve spoken on before, this side of black metal doesn’t always get our juices flowing, but when it does, it can be cathartic. Debut long player Nocturnal Blood Tyrants happens to deviate from the tried-and-true formula somewhat, whilst sounding a bit familiar (in a good way).

I waxed poetic about Nimbifer’s scorcher Der b​ö​se Geist last year, and it’s only grown on me further since. With that, there are common threads between that record and Nocturnal Blood Tyrants; mostly within the embracing of a stripped-down production that isn’t muddied into an indecipherable blob of static. Furthermore, the band understands the need to set an appropriate mood. “Blood Solstice” does exactly that, with a creepy ritualistic chant that leads into trebly yet roaring guitars that erupt without restraint. These Italians know how to pen a riff, and they’ve got them in abundance throughout. Ominous infernos of energy are at the core of pieces like “The Black Hunters” and “A Plague of Iron and Dust”; however, what makes the album stand out are the varying tempos Blutsauger utilizes, conveying important dynamism instead of settling into repetition.

The title track is another standout, with H. Škrat pushing his vocals in a number of directions, from gurgling snarls to raspy screams, giving the track and the album that nastiness factor, essential to a band of this ilk. Finale “Ausgeblutet” combines a creepiness with the arcane, utilizing several samples to fine effect, while the song embraces a meticulous build of slow-to-mid-paced movement that raises the band’s ambition further still.

It’s not fancy, but Blutsauger knows how to hit hard and make the listener feel it. Nocturnal Blood Tyrants is a dish curated for those who adore that early second wave, spilling forth with riffs that’ll make the listener thirst for more and a production that enhances the finished product. Those endeavoring to craft this sort of black metal, take detailed notes.

 

Proscription – Desolate Divine

Release Date: August 29, 2025

We don’t intentionally save one of the best for last, but since we order these by release date, well, that’s just where the filthy chips fell. Finland’s reputation for black metal is well observed, and one of the most underappreciated in recent years is Proscription. True that they integrate select elements of death metal into their sound, but the predominant sonic output is soaked in black metal abrasion. Their first full-length Conduit stands as a highlight of that 2020 year that we’d like to mostly forget, and the next chapter has certainly been eagerly awaited. A little under five years later, we have it in hand in the form of Desolate Divine.

From the off, “Gleam of the Morningstar” lashes out via a cutting riff that establishes itself immediately, before the arrangement of layered growls, shouts, and bellows surrounds with anarchic yet well-calculated affronts. “Bleed the Whore Again” continues, albeit with a slightly different purview in tonality, giving a hearty mace to the chest sort of potent efficacy. Proscription were heavy as dark matter previously, and on Desolate Divine they’ve found ways to raise that aspect a few bone-crunching notches.

If quick-hitting furor is your poison of selection, “Entreaty of the Very End” and “Heave Ho Ye Igneous Leviathan” will bludgeon with ease, though not without a multitude of twists. All entries here have multiple dimensions, underlined by a seamless flow, highlighting the group’s ever-tightening songwriting acumen. “The Midnight God” stands as a personal highlight, a track with more fiery moments than a volcanic eruption, and memorable riffs in sinful abundance. The atmosphere of “The Great Deceiver” expands the palette further still, with a galloping stampede of blackened might trampling all who dare stand in the way.

Dark Descent rarely misses, and with Proscription’s latest, they’ve got an album that may be the best they drop this year – though still plenty of time and some really interesting stuff on their release schedule still to come. The best black metal for these ears is bruising, vigorous, and clouded in pitch-black darkness, and Desolate Divine contains all of that and much more. Add in the detailed craftsmanship that elevates the album further still, and we have a titan that cannot be missed.

 

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