(written by Islander)
The sharp-eyed among you will notice that the word “PREMIERE” in the post title is cuddled by quotation marks. That is because the song we’re presenting today was out in the world for some number of months beginning last January, when the debut album that includes it was digitally self-released by the band who made it. I heard the song and the rest of the album back then and spontaneously reviewed it because the record blew my mind.
At some point the digital stream vanished, the reason being that the astute Transcending Obscurity Records decided that the album needed a pjhysical release and a bigger audience, and the band agreed. As T.O. has written: “This release is not a rebirth but a necessary resuscitation.” And so now the once-public songs are being slowly revealed again in the run-up to T.O.’s release of the album on December 5th, including the song we’re re-revealing today.
What are we talking about? We’re talking about Death Obvious!
merch artwork by CVSPE
Allow me to repeat in full what I wrote about the band’s self-titled album last January (as if you had a choice in the matter):
“How to describe this? On the one hand the music is often ugly and abrasive, malevolent and marauding, dissonant and discordant, and accompanied by thoroughly bestial and berserk vocals that escalate into lunatic cries (I thought repeatedly, ‘We are witnessing a possession!’).
“On the other hand, this is a relentlessly dynamic, constantly mutating, constantly galvanic beast, just fizzing with ideas. It incorporates hooks of many different kinds, many of which come in the form of guitar motifs that are wildly freaked-out, gruesomely morbid, miserably suffering, or just plain peculiar.
“The pacing changes constantly; the instrumental filigrees (including the bass- and drum-work) are elaborate, multitudinous, and impressively executed; the stylistic wellsprings include black and death metal but freely venture beyond those into realms of acid-overdose psychedelia, mutant prog, corrupted doom, and even twisted neoclassical.
“Shit, there were even times when I thought, ‘This is what Big Band records from the early ’40s might sound like if I started tripping.’ At one point I wondered, ‘Is that an old Casio piano or a Mellotron, or just a Steinway? And is that an accordion? Is that a clarinet? Is that a gong?’ I also wondered, ‘Who the hell are these two geniuses? This can’t possibly be their first rodeo!’
“It’s not only tempting but probably compulsory to call this album an ‘avant-garde spectacle,”’as surprising and fascinating as the sudden arrival of a meteor out of the clear blue sky. Despite the name, there isn’t one thing obvious about where this album goes. I couldn’t buy it fast enough, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough.”
And now let’s give some specific attention to the song we’re sharing today — “The Great Gate Theory“.
Think of some great shaggy beast lumbering toward a bleak destination, grimly yowling and miserably wailing as it goes. That will give you some idea of how the song begins. But with a tormented howl, the riffing begins to writhe and pulsate; the drumming flares into the pumping of pistons; agonized notes ring out and grimly undulate; scalding howls and unhinged screams vent the words with teeth apparently bared.
The layers of quivering, wailing, oozing, and screeching instrumentation manifest in changing patterns, augmented by eerie keys, with the band’s low-end thrust-or-crawl and the variably thumping beats keeping things on course (sort of). The experience is surreal and scary, but not the kind of thing you can turn away from, because it’s immaculately crafted misery and madness.
DEATH OBVIOUS are:
Lea LeVey – Vocals
Sima Sioux – Everything Else
Transcending Obscurity will release Death Obvious on CD and digital formats, with lots of apparel and other merch on offer. They recommend it for fans of Thantifaxath, Dodecahedron, Veilburner, Lurk, Blut aus Nord, Hexrot, and Deathspell Omega. Find more info via the links below, and also check out two more astonishing songs re-released from the album so far — “Santuario” and “As Absence Expands Over Everything“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://deathobvious-label.bandcamp.com/album/self-titled
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
DEATH OBVIOUS:
https://facebook.com/DeathObvious
https://instagram.com/deathobviousband