Review Summary: Maintains the strengths and weaknesses of black metal, but with an exciting focus on melody and atmosphere.
Obsequiae is a Melodic Medieval Black Metal band from Minnesota. The band takes pride in their music's ability of transporting the listener back thousands or more years with their Medieval approach. The ancient architecture featured on the front of the cover supports this. Medieval buildings on the front of metal albums aren't anything new, but the bright sunny day, green pasture, and serene feeling here hint at the unique quality this album possesses. Everything you would expect of the genre is still here: lo-fi production, the distant reverb covered shriek vocals, the drawn out rhythms. Separating themselves from some of their meandering contemporaries is a driving melodic force to the music, beauty, and the ability to avoid some of the genres tropes.
The album is paced well. This is thanks in large part to the inclusion of four instrumental interludes of beautiful classical guitar music ranging from a minute and a half to three and a half minutes in length. Awash in reverb and floating through time; the vibe can be described as ancient and heavenly. These changes in tone separating the main metal tracks are very much appreciated and highly increase the listening enjoyment. The length of the metal tracks doesn't ever exceed much beyond five minutes, which again hints at their more driven approach rather than the fifteen+ minute long epics often associated with black metal.
The sound and arrangements here are great. It has the soaring atmospheric guitars of Insomnium's newest release with the folk riffs and phrasing of Wilderun's newest, all covered in a thick layer of black metal. Reverb is all over this album, conjuring images of reflective bath houses or expansive vistas. The guitars always use it, the vocals always use it (often accompanied by subtle echos). This may sound a little worrisome, but here it is a big asset, perfectly sculpting the massive atmosphere Obsequiae was clearly intending. Often the guitars have a bagpipe or even bell like sound to them. Groovy riffs make way for well layered guitar leads. These leads aren't your typical showcase flashy solos. Instead they maintain the atmosphere and add a much needed level of interest. The layering of the guitars sounds expansive and is the band's harbinger for harmonic excitement. Melodic guitar lines rise and fall, cascading down while another new melody rises up.
The drums do a great job of switching up their level of intensity to make sure the tasty guitar work maintains its dynamic impact. Blast beats, slow groove beats, and much in between are all here and the drums never dissolve into the standard "blast for several minutes" trope. The vocals do their job well and aren't ever overly intrusive. Still, I am not a big fan of them. The bass on this album is some of the best metal bass I have heard. Highly audible in the mix: the bass weaves through sections creating a perfect counterpart to the music and taking full advantage of itself as another melodic instrument. The level of thoughtfulness put into the bass in particular is impressive. Finishing off the sound is the slightest symphonic element.
This album may not change your opinion if you aren't at all a fan of black metal, but its vast melodic nature makes it as great a place to start as any. The songs do start to sound very similar to each other. However, this album is a heavy grower. Soon the listener may become entranced and taken to another time. And the rather homogeneous nature of the record actually adds reply value, making the listener want to go back to see what they may have missed. As not a huge fan of black metal myself, I can definitely say I am overall pleasantly surprised. If you are a fan of metal but a little weary of black metal, this may be just right for you. If you like black metal this is a unique record that is highly recommended. Being highly familiar and yet quite unique, this album is a quality and necessary addition to the genre of atmospheric metal.
