Review Summary: It's cold, you're walking barefoot down the longest and darkest tunnel of your life, and you can hear the rhythm of your own heart growing louder as it yearns for more.
Personally, I'm not the type to get into genre labeling because I usually find that much like religion and politics, someone usually ends up getting offended along the way, and frankly it's just not worth it to me. I prefer to focus on the music itself. That is why I will take Obsidian Kingdom's word for it when they say that their latest remix album incorporates elements of "Abstract Hip-hop, Ambient, Breakcore, IDM and Dubstep." To be quite honest, I'm not even sure what "abstract Hip-hop" would even sound like or if that's just another blanket term being thrown about, but I digress. The truth is that it should come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with
Mantiis, Obsidian Kinddom's first LP, that they would use a remix album to explore another set of styles, since
Mantiis was quite a mix of styles in its own right.
The album starts with a very simple drum track that quickly turns into a hypnotizing bass and string duet. At this point my interest was fully piqued and I was anxiously waiting for the vocals to kick in. Were they going to be a sample of the cleaner stuff or the harsher stuff that that was in the original song? I was definitely rooting for the latter to make an appearance, since that seemed like it would make for a more interesting juxtaposition. Before the vocals kick in the song winds down briefly as if it were going into a free fall. Like a skydiver's reserve parachute kicking in at just the right time, the track picks back up in a frenzy of drums and reverb, which are accented nicely by a small sample of those harsh vocals I was secretly hoping for.
The album is very atmospheric and I found myself getting lost in the trance-like rhythms spread about. After listening to this album numerous times, I found that I enjoyed the album as background noise and equally, if not more so, when it had my full attention. There is this really cool part towards the end of "Haunts of The Underworld" that incorporates dubstep into this funky middle-eastern sounding riff. It's definitely one of the standout tracks for me.
As you might suspect, the album as a whole leans more heavily on IDM, but it perfectly captures the essence of its post-metal and black metal origin. The album is very consistent and carries the same tone throughout. Every track has a very dark and ominous feel to it, and does a great job of derailing itself at the appropriate times, thus keeping the listener engaged. I actually wish they had been able to remix every track from the original album. I won't be presumptuous enough to claim that this is anything new, but it was very enjoyable to listen to.
