Obscura
A Sonication


1.5
very poor

Review

by Jeremy Wolfers USER (125 Reviews)
March 9th, 2025 | 34 replies


Release Date: 02/07/2025 | Tracklist

Review Summary: A forceless and flaccid effort from a band capable of much better, A Sonication falters with a lack of hooks, finesse and originality.

After their renewed fortunes with the melodic A Valediction in 2021, Obscura experienced the not-unfamiliar problem of a series of lineup changes. Two rotations of members later, A Sonication comes out, and clearly Steffan Kummerer was trying to make lightning strike twice with a similarly "melodeath" iteration of Obscura's sound. Setting aside the circumstances of this album (riff-plagiarism and a rushed recording schedule), which you can read of elsewhere, something somewhere clearly went very wrong with the actual music.

Where A Valediction was fast paced and propped up by the dazzling lead work of Christian Muenzer, A Sonication sounds practically bogged down even whilst drummer James Stewart is hammering away with fast blast beats and great technical precision. The bass performance is quite good as well, perhaps not as good as the usual Obscura standard, but above average for a death metal band, with good clarity and some neat lines. The problem is almost entirely the rhythm guitar work: Kummerer has in the past shown decent skill as a rhythm player and clearly knew his way round a riff, but here the guitars sound far too loosely played and imprecise. The riffs are not a quick and dynamic, simply cycling through chord tones in a monotonous, boring way, as if an AI was trained on every Obscura song and instructed to make the riffs as generic as possible. Take In Solitude: on the face of it, it recalls their Cosmogenesis-era, but it just rattles off a drab riff and repetitive basic blast beat that makes it sound like they inserted a placeholder part for the verse and forgot to change it later on. Kummerer's guitar leads are also quite sloppy, lacking the same precision (or possibly just quality editing) that they held on previous efforts.

Speaking of which, A Sonication has disastrously poor production. You'd be forgiven for thinking this was arranged and mixed by a bedroom producer, but unbelievably, this album is produced by THE Fredrik Nordström, responsible for great sounding albums like Clayman, A Predator's Potrait, and many others. Mushy, lifeless guitars, a bizarre absence of any low end, and washed-out leads dampen the impact of any part of this album and sap away the force that this album is desperately banking on in the absence of the same creative riffs and jazzy solos of previous efforts. I can only presume Nordstrom was watching the Bourne trilogy in the back whilst Kummerer did all the mixing.

The most painful thing about A Sonication is that there are brief glimpses of their formula working. Evenfall's opening bass riff (plagiarised from prior bassist Alex Weber, predictably) establishes a poignant atmosphere, and the emphasis on a slower, more melodic approach helps bring out some of the best riff writing on the album. Stardust, despite feeling like a slow-motion version of an Akroasis or Diluvium track, sees them actually find some interesting riffs, although the formulaic structure unfortunately kills their momentum by the chorus and the song does not progress far from its initial chord progression. The other guitarist, Kevin Olasz, also provides several good solos, with a cool "outside" sound and more interesting harmonic choices than in the rest of the guitar work. However, it feels that the good ideas are swamped in predictable chord progressions, basic choruses, and unmoving song structures.

Who's to say if this particular iteration of Obscura will last, but if it does, their next album needs a lot more time to cook. A shallow and dull effort from a band capable of much better, A Sonication is the worst Obscura album and a bad omen for their future as one of the leading lights of tech-death.



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user ratings (63)
2.8
good


Comments:Add a Comment 
Pikazilla
March 9th 2025


31863 Comments


thing is, they were never good in the first place

Madbutcher3
March 9th 2025


3169 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

i think their albums mostly sit in that 3-3.5 range - not my favourite band but fun every now and then

brickhed
March 9th 2025


133 Comments


Glad to see a review on this that's not solely whining about the stupid drama about the album and actually focuses on the music.

Haven't really bothered to check out Obscura yet, might check their first album eventually.

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
March 9th 2025


28268 Comments


they suck don’t waste your time.

brickhed
March 9th 2025


133 Comments


That's what everyone says about the band with stupid drama around em

They can't be that bad

pizzamachine
Contributing Reviewer
March 9th 2025


27967 Comments


Bet this slaps

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
March 9th 2025


28268 Comments


they’re every cliche that people who don’t like tech death make fun of tech death for.

i can see liking them if you like tweedly dee wank riffs and fight people in gamestop on pokemon card release dates, but unless that’s really your thing it’s quite insufferable to slog through.

pizzamachine
Contributing Reviewer
March 9th 2025


27967 Comments


What if I like riffs but don’t play Pokemon 🧐

NexCeleris
Staff Reviewer
March 9th 2025


1858 Comments


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRJgYB_tSho bangs.

This one sucks.

Sevengill
March 9th 2025


12769 Comments


oof. the last one was pretty good. sad to see a band melt down like this.

Chichamous
March 9th 2025


4 Comments


Guy says the band sucks don't waste your time with them yet shows up on their page to comment. Find out for yourself if you like a ban or not, cause I think their older albums are some of the best tech death. That's my opinion, I didn't like the last album

Hawks
Contributing Reviewer
March 9th 2025


99736 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

Band rules but this album sucks insanely hard yeah.

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
March 9th 2025


28268 Comments


damn I thought we couldn’t make new accounts

Madbutcher3
March 9th 2025


3169 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

i think the band are definitely overhated. not the most original or aggressive but they have some cool riffs and melodies, but big problem is that the people who write the good music have left so it's just kummerer who is a mediocre musician in comparison and who writes boring songs



also do not listen to the first album, it's not representative of their sound, just very very mediocre normal death metal

Pikazilla
March 9th 2025


31863 Comments


there are plenty of great tech death bands

obscura, archspire, and fallujah are prime examples of bad tech death though

Hawks
Contributing Reviewer
March 9th 2025


99736 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

I'd go more with The Zenith Passage and The Faceless and also Fallujah blow yeah. I've dug everything this band has done except this.

artiswar
March 10th 2025


16592 Comments


I didn't jam yet but damn, is it THIS bad???? Or are you just being harsh

Hawks
Contributing Reviewer
March 10th 2025


99736 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

Its one of the worst tech death albums I've ever heard. Also veers heavily into very shitty generic melodeath that sucks just as hard.

DePlazz
March 10th 2025


4866 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

Agreed this is a new low. Cosmogenesis and Omnivium were good, it's downhill from there imo

dachstheangry
March 10th 2025


290 Comments


Last album was pretty good. Can't believe it's that bad.

Also Archspire and Fallujah (love the new single) are great imo haha



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