When I used to think of current Finnish death metal (not the melodic kind), I tended to think of crushing death/doom, or perhaps a few famous death/grind deviants. Mine eyes have now been opened wider.
Obscure Burial are a relatively young band from Turku, Finland, whose first demo was released in 2012 by Ireland’s Invictus Productions. Invictus, which has dependably refined tastes in filthy extreme music, is about to follow up that first abomination with a second one. The new demo is named Epiphany, and it’s due for release on September 15.
Anyone who shies away from raw, flesh-rending, berserker blackened death metal with a heavy emphasis on speed can stop reading right here, because that’s what you’ll get in spades from Epiphany — and from the song we’re about to premiere: “Night Queen”.
On the other hand, if you get a flooding adrenaline rush from ripping riffs, weapons-grade drumwork, and vocals that sound like a demon pantheon, you’re about to get a satisfying fix for that addiction. In fact, you may not need another fix for days or weeks, because this is potent, uncut, and borderline toxic stuff.
Obscure Burial may be young, but you really wouldn’t know it from their mastery of this music. They succeed in pulling from a well of raw death metal traditions that goes back deep into the past while injecting new energy into the sound with superheated performance skills, impressive dynamism, and a barrage of highly infectious riffs.
Epiphany is flat-out blistering — the lead guitar work and soloing on this demo will raise welts on your skin. And even when Obscure Burial aren’t flying in a high-speed fury they’re still capable of pulling your head apart with unexpected twists and turns and an authentic commitment to ingenious insanity.
There’s just no better word for this music than galvanizing.
Unless maybe it would be the word evil.
Scorching, demonic, and obliterating — those are good words, too. Hot shit would work, except that’s two words.
But I’ll stick with galvanizing, because Epiphany really will put a high-voltage jolt right into your brain stem.
Obscure Burial’s first demo, God’s Abomination, is available as a download on Bandcamp (go here). Look for this new one on September 15 through the Invictus links below.
http://invictusproductions.net
http://invictusproductions666.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Obscure-Burial/347232682060598