by Schuler // Death Drive 90.5
Greetings! Welcome to the first installment of WUSC 101, a new series in which one of your favorite WUSC DJs introduces you to one of their favorite artists. While this digital age of ours makes listening to music easier and more convenient than ever, trying to find new music can sometimes result in a bit of sensory overload. You know how it is… your friend told you about a band she saw who was jussssst okay. But the band that opened for them? Absolutely killed it. You think they were called Obscurum? Obscaria? OBSCURA, that’s it, Obscura. So you look ‘em up on Spotify and it turns out they’ve got, like, six albums out. This is where you give the algorithms and aggregators a break, and let a knowledgeable fan do all the heavy lifting for you. In each new installment of WUSC 101, one of our passionate, seasoned DJ’s is gonna make you a fan for life with the five most essential songs from an artist they love.
I’m the blog editor here at WUSC, but I also host a show called Death Drive 90.5. It’s a specialty show dedicated to death metal, a subgenre of heavy metal that blends a foundation of thrash attack and punk extremity with cues from a number of other musical influences, ranging from blues and classical/orchestral to jazz fusion and electronic elements. One of my favorite bands of the last ten or so years is Obscura, a German band whose sound is often described as progressive technical death metal, a niche with a focus on retaining the heaviness and brutality of death metal’s caveman forebears, while innovating instrumentation with polyrhythmic song structures, fretless bass, atmospheric keys and the occasional vocoder. Obscura was founded in Munich in 2002 by guitarist and band mastermind Steffen Kummerer, and over its nearly 20 year career, it’s seen a number of lineup changes. The group recently experienced a mass exodus in which its latest lineup’s lead guitarist, bassist, and drummer all departed, leaving only Kummerer remaining. He’s since rebuilt the band, reuniting with former members Jeroen Paul Thesseling on bass and Christian Muenzer on guitar; both Thesseling and Muenzer are legendary death metal musicians in their own right, but some of their most noteworthy work was on past Obscura albums Cosmogenesis and Omnivium.
tl;dr - Obscura is badass, and if you wanna sprinkle some theory on your heavy, now is a really good time to get into them. Here are five places to start. Have a quick read & check out the Spotify playlist at the bottom!
1. “The Anticosmic Overload” from Cosmogenesis (2009)
This is the crown jewel. It’s the song that put the band on the map, and it’s probably the first one any fan of Obscura would recommend you check out if you’ve never heard them before. While the band’s made some impressive musical strides over the years, and while Kummerer is always looking for new ways to evolve his songwriting, “The Anticosmic Overload” really is a kind of blueprint for all other Obscura songs; all the elements of what they do best, and of what makes them them, are present here in spades.
2. “Vortex Omnivium” from Omnivium (2011)
Another absolute classic from one of Obscura’s most celebrated records, and a steady component of their live set over the decade since its release. Some of their songs can get pretty long, but at just over four minutes, this is Obscura at their leanest and most focused. A total shredfest.
3. “Ten Sepiroth” from Akróasis (2016)
When you listen to Akróasis, you can tell it was a busy five years between its release and the release of its predecessor, Omnivium. Following the dissolution of the latter’s lineup, Kummerer put together some hungry, talented young players to push Obscura’s legacy forward. “Ten Sepiroth” is my favorite song on this record, and it features some breathtaking performances from bassist Linus Klausenitzer and drummer Sebastian Lanser. Check out the song, and if you like it—and wanna have your mind blown—get on YouTube and look up Lanser’s drum playthrough. Most of us will never do anything as impressively as that guy plays drums.
4. “Centric Flow” from Cosmogenesis (2009)
I feel like 15-ish years of overuse in the pop culture lexicon has just about rendered the word “epic” meaningless, but I honestly can’t think of a better description for “Centric Flow”. This is the closing number from the band’s breakout album, Cosmogenesis, and it’s easily one of their best. So technical and mathy, but so catchy and memorable. The riff that comes in at 4:35 and carries the rest of the song is timeless.
5. “Emergent Evolution” from Diluvium (2018)
I can almost see this track starting as an experiment in which a tech death band tried to write a song for pop radio. Diluvium is a dense, dark record, and that’s part of what makes the bright flourishes of Cynic-esque clean vocals and vocoder stand out so starkly against the backdrop. The fact that “Emergent Evolution” is catchy as hell doesn’t hurt either.
Alright, man, if you’re looking to get techy and proggy with some of the finest in the game, here’s where to start. Be sure to keep an eye on Obscura as 2020 progresses. This rejuvenated lineup is sure to bless us with some of the hottest, nerdiest fire. And be sure to check back here at your favorite college radio station’s super awesome blog for future installments of WUSC 101.