OBED MARSH: “INNSMOUTH”

 

(Andy Synn wrote this review of the debut album by Obed Marsh from Perth, Western Australia.)

Let’s face it, the relationship between Lovecraft and Metal is pretty well established by this point, with numerous acts from across the length and breadth (and other, more esoteric, dimensions) of the metallic spectrum all turning to the twisted dreams of the Providence-born prophet for their inspiration.

Joining their deformed and deviant ranks we now have Obed Marsh, a doom-laden duo named for Captain Obed Marsh, accursed founder of The Esoteric Order of Dagon, whose pact with the blasphemous Deep Ones was, in turn, the source of both Innsmouth’s prosperity, and its ultimate damnation.

Over the course of six weighty, oppressive songs – bookended, in true concept-album style, by the atmospheric “Prologue” and “Epilogue” — these down-under denizens conjure up a series of truly harrowing musical visions whose filthy tendrils seek to infiltrate and permeate every fibre of your being.

So come with me now, into the murky depths. But don’t expect to return unchanged by the experience…

 

 

All fancy wordplay and hyperbole aside of course, it should be patently obvious how much I’m in love with this album, from the soul-crushing crawl of “Innsmouth Ritual”, through the draining, droning magnificence of “Usurpers” and the dreamlike dread of “Deficient”, all the way to the pitch-black monument to depravity that is the climactic “Seeping Wombs” — with every gargled, inhuman vocal and discordant, mutated doom riff practically reeking of madness and fever, and every track laced with ugly veins of squalid, squalling melody and hallucinatory disharmony.

It’s without question an altogether abominable piece of work (and I mean that in a good way) that’s shot right into contention for one of my favourite releases this year thus far.

So if you’re looking for something particularly foul and malevolent, something so morbidly, infectiously grim that it might also prove to be a danger to both your body and your mind (to say nothing of your immortal soul), then you should plan on making a journey to Innsmouth as soon as you can.

Just try not to upset the locals…

https://www.facebook.com/obedmarshband/

http://obedmarsh.bandcamp.com/

Innsmouth features artwork by Mark Cooper (Mindrape Art). It was released on July 19 and is available as a download at Bandcamp.