Obscurité

Obscurité - Contemplation II
Ossuaire Records, 2015
Genre: Black Metal

1. Intro
2. Invocation
3. Lointains chants dans l'horizon
4. Le Cosmos: Dans la fuite des saisons
5. Dans l'astrailité de l'esprit
6. Le Sanctuaire
7. L'impasse lunaire
8. In Regeneratione Solis
9. Erêbe
10. Outro





Obscurité wasted no time in getting back into the studio to release their second full-length and what a massive improvement in just a years time. Obscurité still manage to keep their core epic atmosphere as the main focus in the arrangements, but this time things have been pushed a little more. This CD comes with a full multi-page booklet this time and the lyrics aren't all crammed onto two pages. The cover and back of the jewel case are a little too dark though, it's one of those things where maybe what was on the computer screen didn't translate as well into a printed product. In this case things are a bit too dark. The booklet is beautiful too look at with its images of landscapes and has lyrics for one song per page this time, which works out much better.

After we get beyond the intro the first thing you'll notice is how much faster the opening song is. This came as quite the shock because we had just gone through quite a lengthy album of slow and quite lengthy material. For "Contemplation II" everything is pushed to the more extreme ends of things and now the album is conjuring up images of early Darkenhöld, which is a truly wonderful image to have. "Contemplation II" feels ancient and medieval and it's only enhanced all the more by the rare keyboard and choir work. Even the guitar tone is much improved on this album and I think a higher gain setting was chosen for this. I think the tempo increase gave Fog a bit more room to be creative since metal drumming is clearly his forté. Don't worry if you're afraid everything is all fast, songs like "Dans l'astrailité de l'esprit" hearken back to the first albums tempo. However, this time they serve to switch up the tempo of the songs and I find this a much more enjoyable experience than before.

If you enjoyed the first album, I can't imagine why this one would disappoint you, since this really just further advances on the first release. The material feels much better written this time around too and the guitar riffs are truly melodic and epic in nature, much more so than before. This project has turned into something really wonderful and I look forward to what's in store for us next, especially with this much improvement between releases already.

Obscurité - Contemplation
Ossuaire Records, 2014
Genre: Black Metal

1. Absolu
2. Païen
3. Contemplatio
4. Résistance éternelle
5. Réminiscence
6. Des ailes
7. Elégie
8. L'ivresse nocturne du ciel etoilé (Cycles)
9. L'aurore et la solarité






Obscurité is a fairly new project out of France and since I've always followed Ossuaire Records, naturally I would wind up with this on my desk. I was also pleased to see that Fog offered drum effort, so I knew the drumming would be quite good. He also offered layout and design treatment and the cover is quite arresting. The booklet which is only two  pages has all the lyrics for the entire album, but because it's on two pages it really does feel a bit crammed onto the pages. On Metal-Archives this is listed as Epic Black Metal for the genre, and so I wasn't expecting the usual fast paced barrage of our usual wall of sound.

Obscurité do have quite an "epic" feel to their take on Black Metal. It just feels ancient and slow moving with the way the material is presented. Blast beats are few and far between and instead the tempo is quite slow. It's, basically, down-tempo Black Metal, if you will. Blast beats are few and far between, but Fog does sneak them in there once in a while. Ash's guitar work is quite good and there are some really exceptional riffs on this release. It sort of reminds me of an album built around the more epic styled Bathory songs or a band like Macabre Omen.  I think the one complaint I would level at the guitars is I wish there was more gain on the guitars or something. When they perform the palm muting riffs it feels a little fuzzy kind of like the distortion settings Mütiilation would use, but that's my most major complaint. Vocally Ash is just okay, nothing exceptional in my book. It's sort of like when Demonaz put out his own album and it reminds me of that. They're not bad vocals, but they don't really stand out either.

In the end this is a pretty good first effort. For me, I'm not sure how much it will wind up in my future listening, because I tend to prefer the faster variant of Black Metal. This being the case "Elégie" is probably my favorite song on this album. I usually like the slower tempo Black Metal as a song or two on an album to break up the monotony of blasting/speed which a lot of Black Metal ends up sounding like. However, if you've ever listened to those songs and said "wow, I wish I had a whole album of this" then look no further, Obscurité is an absolutely fine choice. Ash does a great job of executing that style and making the riffs interesting and, as you can guess, quite epic.