Don’t let the word Drone put you off, this is no exercise in that sort of dro)))ne but a lesson in outright ferocious extremity. This has that sort of intense feel to it that Strapping Young Lad ploughed into their finest moment ‘City,’ not that musically it is comparable, it’s more a case of the feeling behind it and that feeling is outright brutality. This Swedish duo comprising of Johan Huldtgren all vocals and Anders Ahlbäck all instruments have created a concept album here, that concept is explained by the record label as “a multi-pronged attack against the non thinkers (like the drones they are) of the world, a relentless attack on heard mentality of the intellectually lazy.” The only respite is in the form of spoken word inserts talking about the death of what I assume was a substandard human, a drone killed due to his own internal turmoil.
There are seven actual tracks divided into three parts, Summer, Fall and Winter. The music does however flow seamlessly and reading an interview I was not surprised to discover this was essentially designed as one track and the titles partly put in to make marketing easier. After two minutes of quiet guitar plucking, hell is unleashed as this flies off the handle in a welter of violent noise. It pretty much carries on in this fashion for the next 42 minutes too. Vocals are not sung but yelled with force and are full throated, every bit as brutal as the whirlwind strum of the guitar and blast battering drums. My CD came with the full booklet which is nicely printed on black with illustrations of grim and deserted looking buildings, the sort of places where you would expect experiments carried on behind closed doors, sheltered from humanity.
There is a bleak and industrial feel behind this and it does spill into the music at times, I noted that a description mentions the word ‘martial’ but it is only really a fleeting one at the beginning of a track. There are few moments where things break and a snatch of melody and distinguishable vocals come through, and I am reminded of early Nachtmystium. Also as we brood with a nightmarish technological edge towards Fall and track ‘Hypothesis’ a few gabba beats would have flung this toward Blacklodge territory. However it does not go down that path but rather this is a break before the headlong intense extremity is spat back out with extreme prejudice.
If you like your music fast and furious, perhaps along the lines of a black metal Berzerker but with longer fleshed out songs and a metalized soundtrack that would keep up to the likes of Tetsuo The Iron Man, then Obitus could well be your new best friend. It’s interesting to note that this is considered their debut album as although they recorded one before called ‘Sonnilon’ by the time they got round to releasing it they considered they had moved on too far musically and decided to scrap it. One can only wonder where Obitus can go from here as they have already created the soundtrack to apocalyptic annihilation and pretty much left nothing but a barren void in its place.
http://www.obitus.org
http://www.myspace.com/dronesofobitus
http://www.eerieartrecords.com
