Obscura – A Celebration I – Live in North America
Release Date: 27th October 2023
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Technical Melodic Death Metal.
FFO: First Fragment, Necrophagist, Archspire.
Review By: Andy Spoon
It’s not common to see some like me reaching out to the live music albums in the extreme metal world. Frankly, there are so-few quality live albums by any artists who play across the death or black metal genres. Generally, it’s a type of album which is usually reserved only for bands with extreme technical prowess and often employing the latest in modern recording and live performance technology, such a pro tools tracks and track metronome technology that is pumped into the monitor feeds for the musicians. It’s actually much easier for bands to produce excellent live recordings, which ought to show some of the readers that it might be a good time to start seeking out live recordings from the most recent years.
Enter: Obscura, legendary melodic tech death metal act from Germany who had just celebrated their 20th anniversary as a band, a perfect opportunity to produce a live album from their anniversary North American tour A Valediction: World Tour. Producing a collection of 10 tracks spanning their illustrious career, Obscura have released one of the best live albums I’ve heard to date, which is really a compliment of the highest order. I was absolutely elated with the quality of each track, which were technically and sonically well-arranged.
The standout for me was the cleanliness of the drum tracks and the bass guitar. While we generally like to have the guitars at the forefront of the track in the metal world, Obscura is one of the few bands whose bass guitar is absolutely one of the marquee instruments (see also Mudvayne and First Fragment) to be heard. Hearing someone in their absolute element makes the album that much better; and having the ability to really get the entirety of the track is something that will absolutely make this a staple in Obscura fans’ collection. E.g. this is one to get on vinyl or CD to display.
Having not really been an Obscura fan, I am not really able to say that each individual track is the perfect, faithful reproduction of the album originals. Frankly, it’s impossible to do that. However, the overall quality of the instrumentation and vocals is so high, that it wouldn’t be insane to think of this as a studio album by other bands. That seems, inherently, to be the power of the aforementioned technology and extreme skill which Obscura employs on A Celebration I. If you’re not an Obscura fan, this album alone ought to make you consider how epic their sonic attack can be.
Naturally, it’s a collection of some of the best live performances, but it’s not meant to be a perfect recording. It’s meant to showcase the band’s skills and the engineers’ recording talent as they highlight some of the best moments. However, one might think that it’s about as close to a perfect live recording that one could experience. As a result, I would have paid VERY good money to see a performance of this caliber. I’m glad that the band sought to share this as an album. As one of the few bands today who is known for such a “tight” live experience, this was an album that was not necessarily highly-anticipated- something that doesn’t mean much these days -; Rather, it’s an album that, much like a force of nature, was an inevitability that absolutely does not disappoint.
(5 / 5)
